Made in Ilva: the contemporary Heremit
The stark black and white image of a bleak and empty factory space is projected on to a square on the stage with the metal pillars that hold the stage lighting managing to look part of the scene. When lights dimly appear, performer Nicola Pianzola emerges from the dark as a faceless hooded figure whose only prop is a steel frame. This serves as a multitude of platforms for Pianzola’s intense and muscular performance throughout. His impassioned demonstration of fierce physicality is the embodiment of harsh dehumanising toil and the repetitive dragging of time involved in the workers’ necessity to work to live. But what kind of life is it? A glorious glimpse of sun shows the simple joy this man is capable of enjoying in his brief escape from brutality. The original score [is] from Riccardo Nanni, one of the composers of the soundtrack of the Oscar-winning film The Great Beauty […]. With narration provided dually in Italian and English, this is stunning and memorable work, from a deservedly award winning company, in which Pianzola gives his all.
