‘The sheet was too big. I got lost.’
by and with
Tomás Acosta, Arianna Barberi and Francesca Laini
Produced by
Collettivo LAN-DE-Sì e Teatro al Quadrato
Dramaturgical tutoring
Alessandro Di Pauli
Stage coaching
Paolo Nicli
Set designer
Federico Biancalani
Lights
Maurizio Tell
make up
Federico Carfagno
type of show
teatro d’attore/musica
Duration
55 minutes
Age
6-12 years
Synopsis
We don’t know when or where this happened, probably a long time ago and far away from here, between an old school desk and the cold North Sea. This is the story of Maisa, a little girl who struggles to follow her teacher’s lessons and gets lost drawing sailing ships and whales. One day, Mestre Fisker gives her a punishment assignment: “What will I do when I grow up?” Faced with a blank sheet of paper, Maisa feels more lost than ever, until the music of a barrel organ arrives and Hugo, a boy who claims to be the lighthouse keeper, appears at her desk. A great friendship immediately develops between them, and they will seek the answer to the assignment together. Amidst legendary ships, storms and whales, between dream and reality, the archetypal metaphor of the sea as a place of exploration, but also of loss and self-discovery, develops.
Director’s notes
Maisa e il Gabbiano remoto (Maisa and the Remote Seagull) is a story born from the need to express – and convey to younger audiences – the dark feelings of a generation or an era, linked to the anxiety of self-fulfilment and the fear of losing oneself, but also the desire to look to the future with hope and courage, as happens to the protagonists in an adventure or coming-of-age novel. The main theme of the show is the “search for oneself”, a subject that can be interpreted on several levels and is encapsulated in a form designed specifically to engage viewers of different ages, thanks to its simple yet symbolic language. In a hyper-technological age full of stimuli, in which we often feel disoriented (especially as educators), this show offers a story that reminds adults of their own search for identity and inspires young people to embark on their own journey. The feeling we would like to leave the audience with could be called “the emotion of the sea”: the uneasiness of the dark depths mixed with the impetus to dive in.
Link to the show: https://www.collettivolandesi.com/maisaeilgabbianoremoto
Link to the company: https://www.collettivolandesi.com/