Partecipants
BARCELONA
Pinto,
Prof. Raffaele Calle - C. Tallers 76 08001 - pral.2 - Barcelona
Universitat
de Barcelona - Facultat de Filologia/Sección de Filologia Italiana
Gran Via de los Cores Catalanes, 585 - E - 08007 Barcelona
Tel: *34-93-40 35 654 - Fax: *34-93-40 35 596
(priv) *34-93-41 26 271 - (altes Haus: -86 54 090) - rfpinto@jazzfree.com
Museo Picasso
Barcelona - Maria Teresa Ocana - Tel: 34 93 3196310
Rosa Delors / Translator c/o Prof. Pinto
USA
Prof. E.L.
Thomas - Choreographer Prof. E.L. Thomas
627 24th Street - Santa Monica - CA 90402-3135 - Tel/Fax: 310/393-0770
ethomas@ucla.edu - emmalewisthomas@yahoo.com
BERLIN
Dittmar, Prof. Norbert - Institut für Germanistik
Habelschwerdter Allee 45 - D - 14195 Berlin
Boltzmannstr. 3 - D-14195 Berlin - Tel: 83 85 44 06 - Fax: 83 85 67 49
(Uni)
(priv.) 86 12 074 - nordit@zedat.fu-berlin.de
Martius,
Thomas* - Video-Expert - Linienstraße 142/143
D - 10115 Berlin - Tel/Fax: 030-28 58 551
Paul, Pauline*
- Italian Translator, Dramaturgin - Mommsenstr.
22
D - 10629 Berlin Tel: 030-32703594 - Fax: 030-32766158
Dr. Lily-Maria
von Hartmann* - Organisation Assistent - Fritschestr. 45/46 - 10627 Berlin
- Tel/Fax: 030- 32709969
Pietro Genovese
- Video Documentary - Tel: 030- 6175059 - Mobile: 0175 8750546 - petrusberlin@yahoo.com
Wirth, Prof. Andrzej - Droysenstr.7 - D-10629 Berlin - Tel: 030-32 45
145
Fax: 030-32 70 76 55 - Mobile: 0179 2907939 - atwirth@t-online.de
Wozniewska,
Ela - Layout - Frohnauerstr. 15
D - 13467 Berlin -Tel/Fax: 030-40540384 - elawoska@tpp24.net
Elgeti,
Susanne - Singer Maulwerk - Wilhemshavener Str. 47
10551 Berlin - Tel: 030-390-399-00 - Fax: 030-390-399-01 - Elgeti.su@snafu.de
Anna Clementi
- Singer Kantstr. 148 - 10623 Berlin
Contact
over Agent: Wolfgang Galler - Kremmener str. 5 - D-10435 Berlin - Tel:
+39 347 18 38 301 - Annclem@iol.it
Agent: Tel.: 44059344 - Agent: Fax: 4435 6933 - Galler@w-galler.de
Marie Goyette
- Singer - Kreuzbergstr. 71 - 10965 Berlin - Tel/Fax: 030 786 2379
Mobile: 0170 5487 784 - marieg10@aol.com
Zonno, Dr.
Teresa - Project Director - Teatro Tra le Righe - Hornstr. 19
D - 10963 Berlin - Tel/Fax: 030-2167327 - Italy: +39 06 86899964 zonnot@hotmail.com
Baur-Worch, Arne - Director - Martin Ostrowski - Theater Zerbrochene Fenster
Fidicinstr. 3 - D-10965 Berlin - Tel. 030-6942400 - info@tzf-berlin.de
Gudrun Friese
- Kostüm - Tel: 030 8263721
Marianne Frisch - Editor Libretto - Sarazinstr. 8
D-12159 Berlin - Tel: 030 8593015 - Fax: 030 8511144
Luigi Manca - Fotograph - Tel: 030 3159490
Fabio Biasio*
- Website / Layout - Wrangelstr. 20 - 10999 Berlin Tel.0177/5011349
Medea Film
- Film Production Malika Chalabi - Tel. 0172 9902922 oder 0172 3102598
Sarah Beddoes
- Production Assistant - Ryke Str. 44 - 10405 Berlin - Mobile: 0179/2252590
- Tel/Fax: 44056629 - sbeddoes@yahoo.com
OXFORD
Gibbons, James* - Prof French Worcester College - Oxford James.gibbons@worcester.ox.ac.uk
Kalhat Pocicovic,
Sebastian - Responsible for the Participants University College
UK - Oxford OX1 4BH - Tel 0044-1865-43 15 87 - Tel.: 01865 514 933
Mobile: 0771 964 2457 - sebastian.kalhatpocicovic@univ.ox.ac.uk
Oxford Drama Society University - Drama Officer - Burton Taylor Theatre
Gloucester Street - UK - Oxford OX1 2BN Tel 0044-1865-791577
Fax 0044-1865-79 37 48 - drama.officer@admin.ox.ac.uk
Swith Adam - Responsible for OUDS Tel 01865-277722 / 0766798874
Prof. Reeds*
Warner, Francis * - Oxford University Dramatic Society - (O.U.D.S.) Oxford
University c/o F. Warner St. Peters College - Oxford UK - OX 1 2DL tel
*44-(0)1865-27 89 00 - (casa) *44-(0)1865-51 18 57 - fax casa -51 08 79
ITALY
Guadalupe – lo spazio per le arti
Wolfgang Storch und Klaudia Ruschkowski - Villa Le Guadalupe
I- 56048 Volterra - Tel/Fax 0039 058886541 - guadalupe@sirt.pisa.it
Prof. Massimo
Vedovelli - Universita per Stranieri di Siena
Via di Pantaneto, 45 - I – 27100 Siena - Tel. 0039 0577 240193 -
240461
privato: 06 87188271 - 07 5394877 - cell. 0338 4210581
vedovelli@unistrasi.it - rettore@unistrasi.it
Tipografia Amaducci snc - Via della Republica, 11
I- 55023 Borga Mazzano (Lucca) - Tel. 0039 0583 88039
Nicola Sani - Compositore - Via Orti della Farnesina 141 - 00194 Roma
- Italia Tel. 0039 06 3297324 - Handy 0171 1525270 - Cell. 0347 8183929
- nisani@tin.it
STOCKHOLM
Jurek Sawka
- Teater Replica Hantverkargatan 78 - S- 11238 Stockholm - 0046-70-7354264
- Mobile: 0046-86-124848 - headq@replica.nu
Notes
"Le
casir attrapipar la queue" is a lyric, grotesque comedy in which
Picasso lavishes verbal impetuosity, ardour and passion with a deforming,
caricaturising, farcical taste. At the first reading, the dialogues such
as those between the Fat Anguish and the Thin Anguish or the Onion and
the Cake seem firmly entrenched in the dimension of the absurd. Yet once
one realises that this comedy, penned in just four days, evokes through
symbolism and allusion the first phase of the war ( ... ), the text, though
still abs urd, finds its own truth, its own credible physiognomy. Picasso
had already started writing in the 1930s - associative words next to each
other in rows, fragmented sentences without punctuation.
"This divertissement was written between 14-17 January 1941 in a
schoolbook. He wrote the piece by just letting the words 'flow automatically
onto the page', according to the practice of the Surrealists, he let his
thoughts roam, giving a free reign to the word torrents of his dreams,
the id6es fixes and the unconfessed desires, the pleasurable meeting of
words and thoughts, of the commonplace and the absurd. Picasso's humour
and his inexhaustible inventiveness are manifested most clearly here.
Everything that had preoccupied him during the few, uniform days in Royan:
the hard winter, the German occupation, the restrictions, the feeling
of isolation, the mistrust, the pleasures of the bed and the table, all
this can be found in his burlesque characters, in Plumpfoot, the Onion,
the Cake, and the others the suggestion to organise a public performance
or reading of the play originated, as far as I know, from Michel Leiris.
He delegated the production to a man of the theatre, Albert Camus, who
was also entrusted with announcing the acts, describing the set and introducing
the actors. Leiris played Plumpfoot, Raymond Queneau the Onion, jean-Paul
Sartre the Dollop, Georges Hugnet the Fat Anguish, jean Aubier the Curtains
und jacquesLaurent Bost the Silence. The beautiful actress Zanie de Campan,
Louise Leiris, Dora Maar und Simone de Beauvoir shared the fernale roles:
the Gateaux, the two Wow-wows, the Thin Anguish and the Cousin. There
were several afternoon rehearsals at the house of Leiris, while Picasso
listened, anxious, curious and excited."
"On the day of the performance, numerous guests jostled their way
into the flat of the Leiris. Braque was among thern, and with him many
other writers and artists. Even the rich Argentinians Anchorena were there,
who despite their many thousands had never received the painted door that
Picasso had promised them." Le disir attrapi par la queue found only
hesitant resonance in the theatres of Europe. For this is a play, that
demands a small, intimate stage and a director who has the courage, imagination
and linguistic sensitivity to animate this difficult text. 1962 saw the
German Premiere of Wie man Wh~nsche beim Schwanz packt in the translation
by Paul Celan, under the direction of Veit Relin at the Atelier Theatre
am Naschmarkt in Vienna. Picasso himself endorsed this performance, which
was celebrated by the international press. "This is not a dramatic
work, of course, but rather an excellent score, with lyrical and scenic
associations that allow for an impressive interpretation, There is no
logic, the images follow on from each other as capricious spawn of the
imagination: bizarre, funny, interspersed with tender poetry, always exciting
and with the sheen of genius. One could believe this to be the creation
of a great linguistic artist who, familiar with all the finesse and crypticism
of contempotary lyricism, also Possesses a virtuoso mastery of the theatre
of tbe absurd. Paul Celan was the author of the translation - this probably
had a lot to do with it."
lt was in 1935 that Picasso turned to writing in earnest. It soon became
a regular activity that was to las ' t, with some interruptions, until
1959. He feverishly filled notebooks, loose sheets and literally whatever
support fell into his hands. Three theatre dramas and over 350 poems are
the result, written and rewritten on various supports, in several versions,
all as carefully dated as his plastic work. Picasso's written works stand
in close relation to his plastic period, and as far as the use of sigps
is concerned, form an extension to this work - experimentation with paper
stuck together, the combination of the written and the visible, the discontinuity
in the use of forms or language - Picasso's creative process is that of
a profound unity, to support the work of art as a whole. 1935-1940 was
a period of intense productivity. Picassos written works are complex,
with disjointed writing resembling a "rhizome" that branches
out as it proceeds. The poems, deprived of punctuation, are constructed
from a species of "hyperphrase" resembling a wave, or undulation,
that dissipates into infinity. Picasso's theatre pieces were written from
1941 onwards. For these he adopted a more narrative style of writing.
However, he maintained an extremely liberal approach to dramatic form;
he did not preoccupy himself with criteria of dramatic construction, but
instead utilised only few distinctive aspects of the theatrical genre.
In Les quatre petites filles., for example, are in the form of long monologues.
L'Enterrement du Conte d'Orgaz, however, is a work that is difficult to
classify. It opens with dialogue, but ends with a monologue. Though written
during the political turmoil of the years 1937-1945, the work makes no
direct reference to contemporary events. Instead, the language used is
that of metaphor. A striking feature is the omnipresence of culinary vocabulary,
which fünctions at various levels. Food is real, but also an "oecasion
for pfiantoms". The fear and horrot of these years is given expression
through inedible foodstuffs, "vegetables of steel, cooked in their
own sauce" (2 April 1938), that rather provoke the desire vomit than
the desire to drearn, as for example the "bread toll with oil and
chocolate biscuit and myrrh and cod and fox's piss, with a choking, ugly
taste" (7 November 1940).
Picasso often reduces all or part of the universe to the level of food,
with emphasis on the liquidity of materials that ate quintessentially
unstable. In Picasso's universe, frontiers are not fixed, allowing the
free passage from one substance to another, from one space to another.
This perpetual motion of expansion and the lack of demarcated frontiers
also characterise the structure of Picasso's written work, which has no
dearly defined beginning or end, and is always in the process of becoming.
Picasso the painter is never far from the surface in his poetry, due both
to the presence of a vocabulary that comes directly from painting, in
which colours and brushstrokes are cited tirelessly, and, above all, to
the "gtaphism" and the spatial construction of his poetry and
the quality supports upon which they were written. Picasso, always sensitive
to the support he used, was concerned with sketching his writing. Some
of his poems are written on Carte d'Arches. Le £sir attrapipar la
queue was written in a sketchbook, while Les quatrepetitesfilles was written
on tissue paper. Picasso's writing, in various pages of the Album de Francoise
(1950-5 1), reveals a spontaneous, free "graphisrn", and comes
close to a form of invented, abstract or illegible writing of unknown
words that appealed to Picasso to sketch in 1938 and 1941. It almost seems
as though Picasso followed his hands in sketching this writing, whose
autobiographical, even banal content is nothing more than a pretext. Picasso
used to say that he prepared for his poerns a palette of continually repeated
words and thernes. This palette of simple words and banal phrases taken
from daily life-is sirnilar to that of the painter who chooses everyday
objects as his subject.
Androzila
Michael
in
B. Mantura, A. Mattiolo, A. Villati, Torino-Londra, 1998
Abridged by Teresa Zonno and translated by Sarah Beddoes