1997 – 1998 Chiaravalle (Ancona)

A theatre of Reality

The Dragon by Evgenij Schwarz

The Dragon was written in 1943, in the midst of the struggle against Hitler’s Nazism. The author, expert in re-elaborating and updating characters and subjects from old folktales, writes about a land where a dragon has been dominating and oppressing the inhabitants for centuries.
The coming of a modern Lancelot will free the town from its oppressor and rescue the beautiful Else, the monster’s intended victim, but it will also disclose the great responsibilities of the “dominated” in their uncritical yielding to power.
“They’re crippled souls” – says the Dragon referring to his subjects; but “they’ll awaken, little by little, again” – answers Lancelot, wondering why “they had been nourishing the monster”.
The Dragon, through the great fable archetypes, presents us the truth of the dominating power and the responsibilities of those who let themselves be dominated and passively submit to violence.

The choice for The Dragon as a closing performance to the Third Chiaravalle CET Academic Year was not casual. It arose from the need of facing, interpreting and staging a Twentieth Century important theatrical text, in trying to reflect upon our human condition at the end of a
tragic century.
This choice allowed the participant students – after their previuos experiences in street performing – to face the Italian style stage in the beautiful Chiaravalle City Theatre.

CET Theatre Educational Center
Academic Year 1997 – 1998, Art director: Mario Gallo

Educational Centre for Theatre