Ci Scusiamo Per Il Disagio

“PROGETTO T.“

CI SCUSIAMO PER IL DISAGIO

a Gli Omini theatrical performance

by and with Francesco Rotelli, Francesca Sarteanesi,

Giulia Zacchini and Luca Zacchini

lights Emiliano Pona

produced by Associazione Teatrale Pistoiese-Centro di Produzione Teatrale

sponsored by Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism,

Regione Toscana regional government

One of the oldest railway lines in Italy. An insane engineering feat. Ninety-nine kilometres of track with 47 tunnels, 35 bridges and viaducts, and a 550-metre altitude difference. Dizzying views. Stops in the middle of chestnut woods. A river running alongside with waterfalls and tiny beaches. Stations off-limits. Constructions gone to ruin.

Hamlets, villages, scattered houses, mountains. A work of art.

Since its birth in 1864, the Porrettana Transapennine Railway, which joins Pistoia to Bologna, has had a chequered history of grandiose ideas, dreams, sacrifices, enormous difficulties, losses and extraordinary engineering feats. After a period of closure, the train line set out on its journey again in 2014, celebrating its 150th anniversary.

A project has been put into place to revitalize the Porrettana railway, salvaging the memories and culture along its route, right up to the present day. And the theatre, with “PROGETTO T.”, is also playing a part in this journey. The lead role in this new production challenge for the period 2015-2017 goes to the Associazione Teatrale Pistoiese-Centro di Produzione Teatrale, together with Gli Omini (Francesco Rotelli, Francesca Sarteanesi, Giulia Zacchini and Luca Zacchini). The Pistoia theatre’s company-in-residence since 2014, Gli Omini is one of the most innovative groups on the national scene, being awarded the Premio Enriquez for theatrical innovation and social research as well as the Premio Rete Critica in 2015.

The way is still long to giving this great work of art a new face. The mission is to bring it back to life, document it, transpose it into something else, revitalize its spaces and populate them with people and activity.

Part of this programme is “Progetto T.”. It started on its way, on the train, at the station of Pistoia. Destination Porretta Terme. Lending a listening ear, gathering images, confessions, faces and stories, to give back theatrical productions in return. Research and interviews on the ground, to find stories and personalities. Performances, installations reflecting this area, theatre produced by reality and real people. Events on one of the oldest railways lines in Italy and in its abandoned places. Three years to transform a carriage into a travelling theatre, a mobile cultural venue.

A station in the backwoods is not just somewhere you go through. It isn’t a moment of transit, it isn’t just a non-place. A small-town station has its own identity, its inhabitants, its voices, its rules.

Gli Omini spent a month at the station in Pistoia, on the platforms, in the bar where you have to buy a drink every other time you go towards the toilets, to sit on the benches. They understood the rules and saw them being broken. They met the people. Some commuters, lots of ex cons, as many on probation, pigeons, confused students, prostitutes, people travelling by train because they haven’t got a car any more, all kinds of couples, all forms of love, pigeons, drug users, homeless mandolin players, women who read at the station and then talk like they’ve swallowed a dictionary, and, pigeons.

People hiding, people looking out of the corner of their eye. People watching the trains go by and keeping behind the yellow line.

Ci scusiamo per il disagio (we apologize for any inconvenience) made its debut in July 2015 at the Deposito dei Rotabili Storici in Pistoia, the historic locomotive depot full of memories, a protected corner that not everyone knows about. Now open to the public, its dead-end tracks and period carriages set the scene for the play.

Gli Omini have been artists-in-residence at the Associazione Teatrale Pistoiese since 2014.

In 2014, thanks to their theatrical research and civil engagement, they won the Premio Franco Enriquez for the most innovative company, and, in 2015, the Premio Rete Critica.

Progetto T. is part of the “Pistoia Capitale della Cultura 2017” initiatives.

Teatrale Pistoiese press and communications office

Centro di Produzione Teatrale

Corso Gramsci, 127 – 51100 Pistoia

0573 991608 – 329 5604925