A French journalist – François – is in a country at war to work on a report. He is welcomed by Malik – the leader of one of the camps, a collector of weapons and a fan of the Western consumer society and of the soap opera Santa Barbara. François also meets a sculptor monk, who happily guards the “cemetery of idiots”, and Marcel, a blind professor who philosophises about the fall of communism and the moral misery of humanity. François shows more and more aversion to the trade of journalism, which forces him to seek for the most gruesome news, and aversion also to humanity as a whole. The rats take an interest in this personal crisis: they are looking to communicate with him. Then the journalist meets the leader of the enemy camp, who happens to be Malik. For years, the militiamen have been fighting against themselves, playing the role of two enemy camps. The rats explain their inter-species cooperation project to François, the aim of which is to clean up the waste on Earth, and to purge humanity of its metaphysical stain. A world summit of good neighbourliness is organised in Luxembourg, to discuss the modalities of the alliance. But the rats are too visible and so the situation slowly deteriorates. The play ends with François’ burial in the “cemetery of idiots”.

Adults

Visniec Matéi

France

Paris

Avignon

Printed

Television

Capitalism

TV soap opera

Journalism

Cemetery

Communism

Socialism

Ecology

Waste

Globalization

Depollution

Censorship

Balkans

Satirical

Grotesque

Tragic

Matéi Visniec, La Mémoire des serpillières (front cover)

French

Journalist

Militiaman

Sculptor monk

President

Le Ministre français des affaires étrangères

Minister

Architect

Macedonian

Russian

Clown

Soldier

Talking animal

Political allegory

Modular scenes

Scene fragment

Exchangeable characters

Address to the public

Masked characters

Procession

Chorus

Off-stage voice

Plot twist

Throws

La Mémoire des serpillères

The Memory of mops

Ondina Peteani was born in Trieste on 26 April 1925. As a teenager, she began to associate with the Fontanot family and attended communist meetings. At the age of seventeen, she chose to become an underground activist of the Italian Communist Party (PCI). She soon began to carry out her first resistance actions under the pseudonym "Natalia". During a police operation in a mountain refuge, Ondina managed to save herself with the help of comrade Cvetko. In June 1943, all the members of the resistance group to which Ondina belonged, Ondina herself, her mother and her sister were imprisoned because of a double agent. After the armistice on 8 September, they are all freed by the people. The informer turns out to be Ondina's sister, Santina, because she had a love affair with a young fascist. Santina is executed. Fighting against the Germans begins and the resistance fighters succumb after a fierce struggle. Ondine and comrade Stecchi are sent in pursuit of the traitor Blechi, who has caused the death of many resistance fighters after infiltrating among them. The comic sketch with the glove-puppets begins: Blechi notices the presence of Ondina and Stecchi and disguises himself as a priest so as not to be recognised, thus managing to escape. When he meets Ondina, he disguises himself as an old man, but she recognises him and Blechi is caught and killed. In 1944, Ondina is deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp as a political prisoner. She survives despite the physical and psychological hardships. The horror she experienced in the camp did not erase her conviction that she had to fight for resistance and freedom.

Glove-puppet

Actor and puppet

Gloved hand

Mannequin

Full-view manipulation

Not specified

Cuscunà Marta

Italy

Monfalcone

Documentary story

Biography

True story

Resistance fighter

Partisan struggle

Resistance

Fascism

Feminism

Woman

Heroism

Maquis

Concentration camp

Realist

Pathetic

Dramatic

Italian

Progetto di teatro civile per un’attrice, cinque burattini e un pupazzo

Choir

Peasant accent

Comical regional accent

Alternating narrative / dialogue

Transforming scenery

Disguise

Confinement

Pantomime

Disguised character (false identity)

Puppet theatre within the theatre

Narrative Theater

Narrator

Murder on stage

È bello vivere liberi!

It's good to live free!

Alcide Cervi was a farmer. In 1934 he moved with his family to Gattatico, near Reggio Emilia, on a piece of land called Campirossi ("red fields"), which nobody wanted because it was infertile. He lives there with his nine children: seven boys and two girls. With hard work, they manage to make these fields prosper, and the family can afford to buy a tractor. The Cervi family is known for their anti-fascist political positions. After July 1943, when the Americans landed and Mussolini was arrested, all seemed well. But in November of the same year, a hundred fascists besieged the Campirossi house. The seven brothers try to resist, but they are arrested and eventually executed. As a sign of support and respect, Alcide Cervi never ceased to receive gifts from all sides: a Bible from the Fiat factory workers in Turin, a globe from the agricultural cooperative workers in Santa Vittoria, skittles for his grandchildren from some friends of the boules club. Finally, the puppeteer himself, Maurizio Bercini, wants to give Alcide a gift: a puppet with his features, with which he can transform pain 'into serenity and play'.

La Mémoire des serpillères

È bello vivere liberi!

Progetto di teatro civile per un’attrice, cinque burattini e un pupazzo

Cide

I doni di papà Cervi