“Citizens without a state” is the common theme of the 20th edition of Tramedautore, which this year focuses on Italy and Italian artists, with a small international section including brand/new short texts by foreign writers.
“Even though this year will be characterised by a more intimate feel - write the organisers - the Festival will still be bringing together writers and artists who have shared this journey for so long, together with the various institutions that have accompanied them, first and foremost the Piccolo Teatro. Twenty years on, we still believe that the theatre can play an important role in metabolising the contemporary, in spreading knowledge and in promoting the growth of a community that we want to see increasingly diverse and inclusive”.

Freetime
“An irreverent outpost. Cultured and unbiased. A sardonic and disillusioned laugh. A lucid reading of our miserable existence, our miserable adaptation and endurance, and our inability to rebel or to rise up”. This is how the director Pierpaolo Sepe defined Freetime by Gian Maria Cervo and the Presnyakov Brothers. The text is a blend of angered farce, detective story, action movie and philosophical “chewing of the cud” which, taking its cue from the collapse of the Lehman Brothers, moves through the dark scenario of contemporary economics, exploring the last ten delicate years of European and global history. The main character, Adam, finds himself in a kind of hotel room. Together with him is a twenty-year-old man, naked, gagged and tied. It is the nephew of the ex-Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy. Adam is speaking to someone on the phone, agreeing with them to kill the young man with banderillas...
“There is no solidarity or brotherhood, only hate and total disinterest for the destiny of others - concludes the director -. We are alone. Everyone against everyone else. Crushed and diffident. We growl our rancour and plot our revenge”.
But there are many extravagant things that can happen in a contemporary work...

Russian, born to an Iranian mother in Siberia in 1969 (Oleg) and in 1974 (Vladimir) the Presnyakovs studied at the University in the Urals named after Gorky, where they founded the young people’s University theatre and where they both teach, the first dealing with literature and philosophy while the second specialises in sociology and political sciences. They both write under the name of the Presnyakov Brothers and their works have been staged by some of the most important theatres in the world, such as the Moscow Art Theatre, the Royal Court Theatre in London and a number of principle national theatres in Europe. They are currently scenographers for the great Russian film-makers Nikita Mikhalkov and Kirill Serebrennikov.

Playwright, translator and artistic director, Gian Maria Cervo has already featured at the Tramedautore Festival at the Piccolo with the work L’uomo più crudele. His works have been staged in some of the most prestigious theatres in Europe, such as the Deutsches Theater of Berlin, the Burgtheater of Vienna, the Teatro Argentina in Rome, the Residenz Theater of Munich, the Materhold Centre in Moscow and the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, where he was resident playwright for the 2001-2002 season. In 2013 he was the first playwright Italian after Goldoni, Pirandello and Fo to see his work staged at the Shanghai Theatre Academy, the most prestigious Chinese theatre institution. His works include Call Me God, written with Marius von Myenburg, Albert Ostermaier and Rafael Spregelburd.