Tuscany Holiday rent BLOG

Imagine a group of friends  deciding to profit from the end of summertime,  from September  in Tuscany when the days are still sunny and  the foliage starts tingeing with yellow.  Imagine renting a villa plunged into the Tuscan landscape and  enjoying  its generous  wine and food.

A cherished memory to keep for the coming  rainy days. You could  avail yourself of the villas for rent in Pistoia offered by Tuscany Holiday Rent because the Chianti area is so charming in those days and because a very special event is taking place in Pistoia at the Theatre Funaro.

The performance by Enrique Vargas called Oracles, from the 22nd September up to October the 1^st 2011, is an opportunity  not to miss because of the famous Columbian director and of the extraordinary story of the theatre itself.  A unique theatre- workshop in Pistoia:  a project fulfilled by four women beyond their wildest dreams.

It all began in 2009 when Antonella Carrara, Lisa Cantini,  Mirella Corso and Francesca Giaconi  were able to  realize  a very special theatre. They succeeded in buying a 900 sq meter site  near the Pistoia hospital, previously occupied by  ropeworks. Keeping faith to its original name the “Funaro”  they meant to underline, in a way, the  ideal continuity of the previous activity  with the primary  role of ropes in the stage machinery works. Thus the Funaro theatre, a multitasking craftsmanlike  structure was organized. Thanks to the women’s bricolage skills they successfully set up a theatre, a rehearsal room, a storeroom-workshop, an intimate cafeteria,  a theatre company guest residence. The management structure follows the very feminine attitude which accurately takes  care of their guests.  A special identity characterizes it,  the vocation of joining  both  children and grown-ups’ educational training  and the professional workshops of Cristina Morganti from the Tanztheater Wuppertal,  Duccio  Bellugi Vannuccini from the Theatre du Soleil of Ariane Mnouckine. The charm of the spot is certain.  Andre Neumann, producer of shows of mythical  figures such as Pina Bausch, Peter Brook and Tadeusz Kantor has been attracted by it.  In fact he has presented the workshop with his personal  files,  containing  projects,  photos,  contracts,  collections of letters  with theatre bigwigs such as Bob Wilson, Meredith Monk, Gassman and Mastroianni and Pina Bausch herself.

Now the Columbian director  and  anthropologist Enrique Vargas, the founder of the Teatro de Los Sentidos has chosen the Funaro as his  Italian buen retiro for his experimentation  on the poetics of  senses and the relationship among sensory language,  body memory and theatre. The focus is the unsaid, the silence which he believes being so functional to the real communication with the audience.

From El Polverin, a gunpowder factory near Montjuic Castle, Barcellona, Vargas’s actual residence in September and October 2011   he will move to the Funaro, Pistoia, to present  his performance Oracles. The issues are the relationship  between questioning and mystery,  labyrinth,  alchemy and  fabula. During the performance,  spread throughout the whole structure,  each spectator at a time  is being invited to follow an archaic and strongly symbolic journey,  rich in esoteric inspirations  ranging from Eleusinian Mysteries to the divination  of the Great Arcanes of the Tarots.

This manifesto performance  has changed the ordinary way of going to theatre.  No longer a conventional performance,  it is an experience where the  sensorial skills are involved, tasting, feeling,  smelling,  listening and watching. One is being guided to walk or sometimes crawl along underground passages, alone, disoriented  in the dark. These  mysterious tracks  focus on four main threads: the labyrinth, the alchemy, the oracle and the tale , commonly linked by the question- mystery relationship.  At  various stages the spectator  meets a character acting  in different ways, who can  either speak or be silent,  show objects or fixedly observe. The psychological and emotional input is physically powerful. The experimentation has reached its climax. The theatre,  in its conventional meaning,  has denied itself to give way to the spectator’s  inner involvement  in a new  unexpected  introspection.

Monticchiello is a suggestively  untouched  hamlet in the heart of Val d’ Orcia. The typical Tuscan  landscape made up of hills and cypresses conjures up  the backdrop of the Renaissance paintings. The visitor is going to be highly impressed by this dramatic panorama, especially in this season when the yellow and the green are closely intertwined in the harmonious combination of its medieval architecture. Here Tuscany Holiday Rent offers its best accommodations in Siena for Tuscany lovers and for the visitors who are, as well, willing to profit from the various cultural events.  Monticchiello, famous for its Teatro Povero is now staging “Argelide”, a midsummer’s night play, from July the 23th up to August the 14^th 2011. 

As usual since 1967, the 300 inhabitants of the stunning medieval hamlet of Val d’Orcia,  are turning into organizers or actors to perform this autodramma – as Strehler defined it –  they themselves conceived .The stage is not in an ordinary theatre , it is performed outdoor in Piazza della Commedia.

A unique phenomenon in the Italian  culture, enjoyed by an audience of 6,000 people, some  even coming from various foreign countries. The main square becomes then  a large stage  surrounded by red geranium decorated windows, structurally reminding us, in a way,  the shape of the medieval English innyards used as playhouses. A popular and unconventional theatre where the  non- professional actors  are directed  by  a member of the community itself  Andrea Cresti .

The Teatro Povero declares in its own name the spirit of its staging,  it is poor because deprived of the ordinary economical strength, of professionally trained actors but basically because deeply rooted in an unindustrialized  social  background . This special event, faithful to its community’s lifestyle,  has made of acting a way of thinking over and possibly overcoming basic social issues such as depopulation, isolation and social breakdown,  an obliged  way to reflect on the history, traditions  and social commitment of the village. A medium of getting to a deeper awareness, particularly heartfelt, because the whole staff  emotionally and intellectually share the very same issues  in an ongoing,  never-ending process , far beyond the entertaining features of its very beginning in the late sixties.  Historically the Teatro Povero has gradually staged the cultural heritage of the hamlet to enlighten  the contemporary  social  identity  in order to get  to its critical  re-assessment,  thus reinforcing the original roots. In this sense the key character of the play now staged , the old woman, named Argelide,  becomes the symbol of the community. This offspring of a peasant family , proudly grounded in her  heritage  is  the prototype of the past courageous generations . Now in spite of the infirmities  of old age, of her aches and pains, Argelide is able to  urge the people at her bedside to react against the pressures of   morally and economically disruptive times. A reflection on younger generations’ problems fighting for a  more respectable future against  contemporary  uncertainty and unemployment .Then the overcome conflicting tension between the generations becomes here a resource for a new  balance. The values of the old enrich and enlarge the perspective of the young,  able to keep tight to them against selfishness and astuteness, so prevailing nowadays.

Thanks to the director Andrea Cresti and to the inhabitants of Montichiello as  well.