Elizabeth and Nathaniel are puritan farmers who want to transform America into the new Promised Land. They trust in God who promises material abundance. But self-denial, inspired by the Law of Moses, leads to ruined crops and poverty. In this work, Romeo Castellucci delves into the pages written in 1835 by French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville following his visit to the United States.
 

The link between the foundation of American political institutions and these puritan origins sheds light on the dilemma of emancipation from the law as an apprenticeship in freedom. Moreover, language, as the primary human institution, cuts across the entire performance, and so, an entire sonorous and vocal archive appears, including possessions, speaking in tongues as in American Pentecostal churches, permutations and anagrams of letters, and the Native American Ojibwe language. Democracy in America is a work on language, faith, and the ambiguous relationship between common interests and individual ambitions. It also deals with lost innocence and the collapse of values, casting a shadow across the face of American democracy.

Societas

Societas is an Italian experimental theater group established in 1981. Societas (society) refers to community, as although each member has his or her specialty, each aspect of each production involves all of them. This theater group has been influenced by an interesting array of art forms and cultural aspects, including rock music, poetry, comics and television. It has been known to shun conventional coherent narrative to focus on visual and auditory impact, using silence, word fragments and even animals and machines in its productions.


Freely inspired by the book by Alexis De Tocqueville

Direction, Set Design, Lighting Design and Costume Design / Romeo Castellucci

Text / Claudia Castellucci, Romeo Castellucci

Music / Scott Gibbons

Cast / Olivia Corsini, Giulia Perelli, Gloria Dorliguzzo, Evelin Facchini, Stefania Tansini, Sophia Danae Vorvila

Dance Performance / Department of Dance, National Taiwan University of Sport

Choreography freely inspired by the folk traditions of Albania, Greece, Botswana, England, Hungary, Sardinia

With choreographic interventions by Evelin Facchini, Gloria Dorliguzzo, Stefania Tansini, Sophia Danae Vorvila

Assistant director / Maria Vittoria Bellingeri

Master of rehearsals / Evelin Facchini

Costume Realisation / Grazia Bagnaresi

Stage-hands / Andrei Benchea, Pierantonio Bragagnolo, Giuliana Rienzi

Lighting board technician / Giacomo Gorini

Sound board technician / Claudio Tortorici

Costumes keeper / Elisabetta Rizzo

Production / Societas

Coproduction / deSingel International Art Campus, Wiener Festwochen, Festival Printemps des Comédiens à Montpellier, National Taichung Theater, Holland Festival Amsterdam, Schaubühne-Berlin, MC93 - Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis à Bobigny with Festival d’Automne à Paris, Le Manège - Scène nationale de Maubeuge, Teatro Arriaga Antzokia de Bilbao, São Luiz Teatro Municipal-Lisbon, Peak Performances Montclair State University (NJ-USA)

With the participation of Théâtre de Vidy-Lausanne and Athens and Epidaurus Festival.

The activity of Societas is supported by Ministero Beni e Attività Culturali, Regione Emilia Romagna, Comune di Cesena.