Mariangela Gualtieri and Cesare Ronconi on Teatro Valdoca's 'Giuramenti'

Teatro Valdoca presents 'Giuramenti', a choral performance described as having the wild force of a forest, calling for silence, gathering, sharing, and action. The piece is conceived as an oath itself—to theater and to life—without any actual oath being spoken. Director Cesare Ronconi explains the work emerged from an urgency for awakening, a 'no' to pervasive distrust and a 'yes' to life and art. The company comprises twelve actors, formed as a group through nearly two years of individual selections by Ronconi, with key figures Mariangela Gualtieri (words), Lucia Palladino (movement), and Lorella Barlaam (thought). The chorus is not a mere sum of individuals but requires a transformative shared experience, often in the woods, involving silence, memorized verses, and singing. Ronconi defines an oath as the 'sacrament of language,' calling upon mystical forces, and in this case, a public oath to oneself to stay awake and alive, opposing fate and attempting a 'contagious uprising.' Singing creates a unified acoustic bath and joy. Gualtieri describes the poetic word as inspired by the Muses, pushing actors toward authenticity and awakening spectators. Theater, for Ronconi, is a 'burning announcement of freedom, courage, and challenge,' a ritual of learning that reveals the skeleton of the mind through the living body of the actor, not a representation but a revelation. The performance 'Porpora' runs at Teatro India until May 28, 2017.