Biennale Teatro closes with an attendance of 13,300 spectators

Today, Sunday June 15^th, Biennale Teatro 2025 directed by Willem Dafoe comes to its conclusion, a Biennale that has captured the attention of many, of the young and not-so-young, and of national and international media, building bridges and raising questions about the legacy of an essential chapter of the past and how to connect this past to our present time.

Over the space of two weeks, the festival registered an attendance of 13,300 spectators, packing theatres at every performance. The strong media response included not only all the major Italian news outlets, but many international media outlets as well:  The New York Times, The Guardian, BBC Radio, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Deutschlandfunk, Theater der Zeit, El Pais, El Mundo, Aftonbladet, Artforum, Bomb Magazine, The Theatre Times, The Drama Review, RSI, among others.

The afternoon and evening of the last day, Sunday June 15^th, will again intertwine the different strands that make up the festival. From the heir to Grotowski’s teachings, Thomas Richards, on stage today with The Inanna Project and his multicultural company (Teatro alle Tese, 5 pm), to the masters of today, such as Romeo Castellucci, who with his site-specific performance The Potato Eaters, staged twice a day throughout the entire festival, offered his powerful vision engaging the spectators in an almost ritualistic journey on the island of the Lazzaretto Vecchio. To the new generations, with the pluri-disciplinary Afro-Belgian artist Princess Isatu Bangora and her explosive monologues, who for the last time brings to the stage Great Apes of the West Coast (Tese dei Soppalchi, 8:30 pm). The festival concludes with the performance of the singer-songwriter, instrumentalist and composer Daniela Pes, already a cult figure, on stage with Spira (Teatro alle Tese, 10:30 pm), the electrifying debut work that won her many awards, including the Targa Tenco for “Best Debut Work”.

The last act of the festival once again shines the spotlight on the younger generations, with the director Alberto Colombo winning the Biennale College Directors under 30 for Imago vocis.

Biografia dell’avanguardia is the title of the documentary produced by Rai 5 television about the protagonists of experimental theatre, key figures who rewrote the grammar of theatre in the second half of the twentieth century, and whom Biennale Teatro 2025 held up to the light to examine their relationship with the present. In the same way the documentary reflects upon the meaning of that revolution and the fruit it has borne over the decades that followed.