incontro
GIULIANO SCABIA
Teatro nello spazio degli scontri

Attraversamenti Multipli 2025 focuses on the work of Giuliano Scabia and his relentless efforts to bring theatre “out of the theatre” into public spaces and into dialogue with communities.
Giuliano Scabia was one of the most original playwrights of the post-war period. He explored various forms of writing for the theatre, organising his works (1964-2020) into the Ciclo del Teatro Vagante (Cycle of Wandering Theatre), which includes 102 titles and consists of complete dramaturgical texts, empty outlines and diary-like accounts of how these outlines were filled with theatrical actions, radio dramas and stories for radio, and short dialogued works of good wishes performed in secret situations or on special occasions. The work is divided into six volumes, offering an insight into the transformations of theatre and Italian society from the 1960s to the present day. The texts, published in the order assigned by the author, which is eminently chronological, with their formal differences and intended purpose, highlight the richness of Scabia’s creative activity for the theatre and his ability to innovate its forms, activating moments of strong social and human connection. Giuliano Scabia (1935-2021), after collaborating with Luigi Nono, explored theatre from 1965 onwards, initially with texts that questioned the lifestyles and ideologies of post-economic boom Italy and the protests (including Zip and Scontri generali). He took theatre out of its traditional venues, revolutionising the stage with performances involving children, psychiatric patients, students, and residents of urban suburbs, rural areas and mountain regions, always guided by Gombrowicz’s motto: “The one with whom you sing changes your song”. He created mythical figures such as the dragon of Abruzzo, a probe into the imaginations of children, Marco Cavallo, a large puppet created in the psychiatric hospital in Trieste directed by Franco Basaglia, a symbol of liberation from oppressive psychiatry, and the Gorilla Quadrumàno, an emblem of a search for deep roots in the environment and within oneself. He was a street actor, a singer of verses, a novelist, bringing his stories to woods, mountains and cities.