The play opens with a “Prologo in cielo” (prologue in the sky) during which the Teatro Vagante (an itinerant theatre) is brought down from the fly towers to the stage: the Teatro Vagante is at once a cave, a house, a cradle, a cart and a theatre. The actors have seen the theatre of the gods, which they have to try recreating now because “a mystery must be revealed”. The mystery is about a country where people are insatiable and keep wanting to eat fresh meat, even though resources are scarce. There are no cattle, an epidemic has broken out in the countryside and rubbish produced by their residents is piling up in the suburbs. This jungle of metal is thought to be the home of spirits called “rottamat”, which people believe to be responsible for the disappearance of several villagers. Everyone praises the butcher for his excellent meat, but he turns out to be an evil character who commits murders to supply meat for his shop. Just like the devil, he takes on numerous shapes: he is simultaneously the Butcher, the Father, the crazy man Matteo and the Emperor. Every morning, the Mother and the Father (the Butcher himself) wait for the butcher’s shop to open so they can buy the best meat, even when their son is in a hospital after having been attacked by the Father. The Mother flirts with the Butcher – who embodies her erotic ideal – until she becomes his victim. Nobody suspects the Butcher. Or maybe everybody keeps quiet so they can keep enjoying his excellent meat? The killings go on until all the villagers have eaten one another. Ultimately, only the Watchman understands that the Butcher is behind the murders, but even he is killed in the end. According to the actors of the Teatro Vagante, only hope remains: “even hell can be transformed – I hope”, one of the actors declares.

Glove-puppet

Shadow theatre

Not specified

Italy

Brescia

Printed

Consumer society

Meat

Pollution

Famine

Cannibalism

Love

Death

Ecology

Evil

Tragic

Grotesque

Lyrical

Giuliano Scabia, Fantastica visione, stage direction by Alessandro Marinuzzi, 1993.

Italian

sopra il taglio e la vendita di carne con cenni alla questione degli attori, dell'arte, del teatro e del mercato generale degli oggetti nel disarmonico presente

Actor

Butcher

Apprentice

Mother

Father

Student

Police officer

Fool

Smuggler

Puppet

Butterfly

Shadow

Voice

Emperor

Minister

Valet

Angel

Interlude

Prologue

Song

Metatheatre

Political allegory

Double characters

Hidden corpse

Dialect

Blow-with-a-stick

Fight

Flying character

Masked characters

Dead talking character

Apparition of the Devil

Apparition of an angel

Puppet theatre within the theatre

Chase

Tragic irony

Stabbing

Murder on stage

Scene of recognition

Splitting of the body

Revelation

Scene in the dark

Seduction scene

Dream

Thunderbolt

Fantastica visione

Fantastic vision