Teatro delle Albe's Purgatorio Parade Engages Matera Citizens

From May 17 to June 2, 2019, the Teatro delle Albe company, led by Marco Martinelli and Ermanna Montanari, presents Purgatorio in Matera, European Capital of Culture 2019. This participatory street theater parade reinterprets Dante's Divine Comedy, inspired by Mayakovsky's mass theater. Citizens of all ages and backgrounds are invited to join through a public call, contributing to singing, movement, acting, sets, costumes, or organization. The project is part of the broader Cantiere Dante trilogy, which began with Inferno in Ravenna in 2017 involving over a thousand participants. Purgatorio will also be staged at the Ravenna Festival from June 25 to July 14. The trilogy concludes in 2021, the 600th anniversary of Dante's death, with Paradiso planned in Ravenna and Timisoara, Romania. Performances traverse key Matera sites: Chiesa del Purgatorio, Piazza San Francesco, Boschetto, Castello Tramontano, and the former Alessandro Volta school. The production is co-produced by Fondazione Matera – Basilicata 2019 and Ravenna Festival / Teatro Alighieri, in collaboration with Teatro delle Albe / Ravenna Teatro.