Romeo Castellucci | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1960 (age 64–65) Cesena, Italy |
| Occupation | Theatre director, playwright, artist, designer |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Period | 1981–present |
Romeo Castellucci (born August 4, 1960) is an Italian theatre director, playwright, artist and designer. Since the 1980s he has been one part of the European theatrical avant-garde.
Romeo Castellucci graduated with a degree in painting and stage design from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna. In 1981, jointly with Claudia Castellucci and Chiara Guidi, he founded Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio. [1]
Since then he has produced numerous plays as an author, director and a designer of sets, lighting, sound and costumes. His works, which combine multiple arts to achieve a holistic effect, have been presented in more than 50 countries. Castellucci’s dramatic lines challenge the primacy of literature. [2] His theatre is a visual, complex art rich in vision. He has developed a language that is comprehensible in the same way as music, sculpture, painting and architecture can be. [3]
Since 2006, Castellucci has been working individually. His productions are regularly invited to the world’s most prestigious theatres, opera houses and festivals.
Romeo Castellucci has released more than a dozen books and has received numerous awards and recognitions, amongst which:
In 2003 he became director of the theatre section of the 37th edition of the Venice Biennale, [6] and in 2008 he was one of two "associate artists" at the Festival d'Avignon, and created three pieces inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy . [7]
On 2 August 2013, he was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement by the Venice Biennale (Theatre Section) with the following motivation: 'For his ability to create a new theatrical language that blends theatre, music and the plastic arts. For creating worlds in which the excellence of the representation of dreamlike states is achieved, which is perhaps the most beautiful affirmation that can be made of theatre. For staging a representation of something impossible to represent, such as a nightmare." [8]
His work is still regularly invited and produced by the most prestigious prose theatres, opera houses and international festivals in over fifty countries covering all continents.
For the three-year period 2021-2024, he is artist-in-residence as ‘Grand Invité’ of Triennale Milano.
In the field of opera, in the two-year period 2023-2024, he will work on Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen for La Monnaie in Brussels and the Liceu Theatre in Barcelona.
In March 2024, he created Bérénice, a monologue loosely based on Jean Racine, with Isabelle Huppert.
In 2025, he made his debut at the Venice Biennale with I mangiatori di patate (The Potato Eaters), a performance staged on the island of Lazzaretto Vecchio, and in Geneva with a version of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, performed by Barbara Hannigan and Jacub Josef Orlinski.
In 2026, he will appear for the first time at La Scala in Milan with Pelléas et Mélisande.
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