Lenz Fondazione Stages Calderón's 'La Vida es Sueño' at Pilotta

Lenz Fondazione returns to the monumental complex of the Pilotta in Parma with a site-specific performance of Calderón de la Barca's 'La Vida es Sueño', one year after 'Il Gran Teatro del Mondo' at the Teatro Farnese. The new work, created by Maria Federica Maestri and Francesco Pititto, is an immersive installation in the Sala dell'Ala Nord, part of the triennial project 'Il passato imminente' culminating in Parma Capitale della Cultura 2020. The space features thirteen bare hospital beds under a truss ceiling by architect Guido Canali from the 1970s. Performers, aged eight to eighty, embody elements and allegorical figures, with video projections of Antonio de Pereda's Job juxtaposed with 17th-century paintings by Ribera, Canaletto, Murillo, Lanfranco, Schedoni, Spada, and van Dyck. The performance explores free will, identity, and the dream-reality boundary, with a rewritten text by Pititto and music by Claudio Rocchetti. Key sequences include an 'Uomo' and 'Bambino' mirroring each other, a medical visit asking 'is it better to suffer or die?', and a child on a tricycle returning to a pile of rags.