Biennale College Teatro / Stefano Fortin - Cenere

The eruption of the Icelandic volcano that brought most of Europe to a standstill in 2010 became, for Stefano Fortin, the inspiration and metaphor for the explosive and all-consuming nature of rage. Cenere, the play that won the Biennale College 2022/2023 Call for playwriting, makes the word “the residue of burned rage”, successfully inflaming “hidden feelings such as rage, that running like magma under the skin, then come to light and erupt into incandescent lapilli and corrosive red ash that first disorient us then enfold us in irreversible turmoil” (from the motivation).

Divided into a prologue and three tableaux with different stories – “that of a son called down for breakfast by his parents, that of a policeman who has to announce the death of their son to a couple of parents, that of a victim who talks about himself and what happened to him” – Cenere also relies on the voice of the author. A presence behind the curtains, but extremely lively and fluctuating, Stefano Fortin’s voice comes on and off stage, intervening to offer the spectator off-the-cuff commentary to make him an active part in building the dramatic action.

Stefano Fortin graduated in 2014 from the Academia del Teatro Stabile del Veneto, and is also the author of George II presented at the Biennale Teatro in 2020, directed by Alessandro Businaro.