Tears of the Dramaturgy: Cal Massari @ Edfringe 2015

TRISTISSIMO
C&C Company, Zoo Southside Main Hall, August 7/15, 12.20, £12/10

‘With your long blonde hair and your eyes of blue, the only thing I ever got from you was Sorrow…..Sorrow’ (Bob Feldman, Jerry Goldstein, Richard Gottehrer)

Inspired by the love pains of Tristan and Isolde, TRISTISSIMO is the second part of C&C’s physical theatre triptych on pain begun with MARIA ADDOLORATA, brought to EdFringe 2014 to great media and public acclaim.   ★★★★ The Scotsman ★★★★ The Herald ★★★★ The List ★★★★★ The  Mumble ★★★★ The Edinburgh Guide ★★★★ TV Bomb 

WINNER OF CHOREOGRAPHY FIRST PRIZE Rome 2015

The two lovers recognise and love each other immediately, and immediately they get entangled in their love and a disproportionate amount of blonde hair braided in tresses that will bound them together, but impede real physical contact.

No real tragedy has a happy ending, no real war ends without a body count, but the journey will often draw out hearty belly-laughs.

The strong narrative, unexpected twists, impeccable technique and instantly recognisable body chemistry and shared language that make C&C stand out in the wide range of offerings by contemporary physical theatre are all present in TRISTISSIMO, a two-hander that shows the Company’s maturity through a series of daring and unexpected, yet perfectly accomplished, situations that will stay with you for a very long time. 


The Fringe

What inspired this production: did you begin with an idea or a script or an object? 
Carl Massari: This piece started with the idea to revisiting the concept of 'Tragedy'. Using as a starting point Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde, we went on to elaborate the idea of 'tragedy' within a couple's personal story. There are going to be laughs too.

Why bring your work to Edinburgh?
After the last year's Fringe experience with MARIA ADDOLORATA, it seemed to us consistent and important for the second part of our triptych on pain, TRISTISSIMO, to be presented at the Fringe even with Sad . There is no better baptism by fire!

What can the audience expect to see and feel - or even think - of your production?
They should have no expectation, bar to be surprised.

How would you explain the relevance - or otherwise - of dramaturgy within your work?
C&C always starts from a physical dramaturgy. From physical improvisation, and later the devising of the choreography, comes the real drama, the leitmotif of the piece.


Trailer TRISTISSIMO from C&C company on Vimeo.
What particular traditions and influences would you acknowledge on your work - have any particular artists, or genres inspired you and do you see yourself within their tradition?
Many companies have been of great inspirations to us: Balletto Civile, Peeping Tom, Need company, Fabulous Beast and many other ... In cinema: Sorrentino, Garrone, Salvatores, Terrence Malick, Wim Wenders ... We are very much inspired by the films.


Do you have a particular process of making that you could describe - where it begins, how you develop it, and whether there is any collaboration in the process?
The body is always the starting point

What do you feel the role of the audience is, in terms of making the meaning of your work?
The audience has a vital role in providing "direct comparison". If

you present a any work, an opera, a performance immediately you have a human reaction, true, universal. You can't do without the confrontation with the audience, its opinions, reaction, criticism and suggestions to complete your piece.

Are there any questions that you feel I have missed out that would help me to understand?
In the past some reviewers, especially very young ones, have been disconcerted by the pact that works on pain can contain many funny passages, more mature journalists seem to get it, though. We would like to say that, in our often surreal way, we try to be true to a sublimated version of life.

Carlo Massari interview

From the website: 

A perfect day , a perfect world, then at some point all becomes twisted.
It seems a tragedy , it seems the inspiration for a prologue, it seems a true story, it seems the end of a world, in the world.
Everything for the hand of man ... for proclamation of freedom, achievement, interest, and beauty. Do you love me or kill me?
We report here on a dreamlike past, yet contemporary, disturbed and inappropriate.
It seems the excitement of the strong things, it seems unique, it seems the only goal, it seems flesh, blood...Then BANG!
Just a shot and it all ends... Of what has been, in the writings traces remain of desperate lovers, tortured feelings of immense sadness and tears. We have not changed that much. Everything still revolves around love and in its eternal contrast.
Let the work root into the why and how of something powerful, strong, huge!
We analyze the nature of the restraint and the pursuit of absolute freedom, the current one, our daily one. We are inspired by the true facts of the crime, true.
In one way or another we try to have our say and not to leave a reaction-relationship unfinished , we are also part of this time, in the end.
What is left of the myth?
A first study on the work of Wagner, a source of inspiration to investigate on.
A careful listening to the song and its majesty. The discovery of the modernity of the Opera, a similar picture, but far from the Middle Ages.
The Wagnerian Opera instigates not only to make tragedies; it is a fact, a divine melody.
Take a head, an incipit, an unforgettable sample, forever... and then weigh it ... What was it? What's this? What will remain?

My experience of your work so far has been that it is spiritual, longing for meaning, sexy and rough: am I just being weird or is this a fair assessment?

Maybe we are weird...!

No, really, you actually got it quite right. We aim at finding rather a crude and straightforward language so that people can be shaken by it while recognising and acknowledging themselves as part of a humanity that belongs to them and that they belong to.

This time, you talk of Wagner - are you an enthusiast?
Maybe we are more depressed than enthusiastic.

What drew you to him in particular?
It is maybe the need to deal with such a feeling of sadness and melancholy that pushed us to looking at Wagner. Wagner is very emotional and tragically ended. As usual, we want to ironically approach the universal dichotomy good and evil.

From what you know of manipulate, is it a good fit for your work?
Considering the quality of the programme we are honoured to be part of this festival.

How do you approach making a new work - do you have a particular dramaturgy?

Our dramaturgy stems from the body. It is based on physical relations and actions aimed at codifying feelings and stories of life and within our society. Our new works are engendered by intuitions, by the desire to speak about something in particular like visions of today’s world, hope, or future pessimisms.

What does remain at the end of a performance?

Memory.


How do you understand the function of art? 

“Je suis liberté d'expression”. I am freedom of expression.