Rafael Spregelburd's '17 Cavallini' Debuts at Teatro Due in Parma

Argentine playwright Rafael Spregelburd's new work 'Diciassette cavallini' premieres at Teatro Due in Parma, running until December 10, 2024, as part of the Reggio Parma Festival. The production is part of a monographic focus on Spregelburd, but the Teatro Due Foundation emphasized the process over the outcome, integrating Spregelburd into the theater's cooperative collective. Spregelburd noted that the ideal production conditions allowed for an extended development period, with four visits to Parma for rehearsals, mirroring his laboratory-like approach in Buenos Aires. The play reinterprets the myth of Cassandra in a contemporary context, structured as a poem where words and actions disrupt rational categories. The title's '17' references multiple metaphors: 17 minutes of therapy, 17 Greek soldiers in the Trojan horse, and 17 choreographic movements. The number 17, a prime number, also carries folkloric associations with misfortune. The first act, 'The Inverted Oracle,' presents an Apollonian version of the myth, depicting Cassandra as a modern human who seeks therapy to mitigate her ability to foresee only horrific futures, with catastrophic results. The second act offers a Dionysian version, recycling information into a labyrinthine game where time itself is the antagonist.