Perché, pur risultando vincitore nella metà dei conflitti che affronta come cavaliere errante, si è imposta l'immagine di don Chisciotte come quella di un vecchio pazzo destinato alla sconfitta? Nel romanzo di Cervantes non è certo un vincente, ma nemmeno un perdente. E la maggior parte delle sue contese non rimanda alla follia, bensì all'ingiustizia, che il personaggio decide di risolvere personalmente, mettendo in gioco il proprio corpo. Così un mulino a vento, progresso tecnologico che avrebbe dovuto alleggerire le fatiche dei contadini manceghi, diventa invece un Briareo soverchiatore dalle cento braccia. Così, seguendo l'intuizione stessa di Cervantes, in questa narrazione gli spietati giganti di un tempo si faranno delatori degli immutati giganti dell'oggi. Dal buio di un secolo dominato da una violenta monarchia assolutista, e da un'Inquisizione che ha convertito il credo di misericordia e tenerezza di Cristo in un'inumana macchina di oppressione e tortura, Quijote splende con una luce che questo libro si propone celebrare, restituendo una visione che possiede una certa novità.

How might the organic link between theatre-making and political action be revitalised? And how might a spontaneous vision of a theatre of and for ordinary people be reignited? Since his political exile from Argentina in 1977, theatre director and producer Horacio Czertok has devoted his life to re-imagining the art of the theatre, taking it out of its comfort zone into places of social conflict such as deprived suburban areas, prisons and mental hospitals, as well as open, public spaces, engaging directly with audiences in a spirit of abiding, carnivalesque, and deeply political theatrical experimentation. Adapting a rigorous Stanislavskian theatrical training to the exigencies of raw, immediate encounters with audiences in marginal and open spaces, Czertok’s theatre-making is unique, not only in the kinds of capacities and skills it allows actors to develop, but also in the way it renders the question of political efficacy immanent to the very process of making theatre.

Providing Czertok’s own, highly personal account of his trajectory in the global scene of theatre-making over the past half-century, this is a book about the theatre of exile – a theatre of streets, prisons, hospitals, open to direct and unexpected encounters with audiences and their life-experiences.

Photos by Luca Gavagna

How might the organic link between theatre-making and political action be revitalised? And how might a spontaneous vision of a theatre of and for ordinary people be reignited? Since his political exile from Argentina in 1977, theatre director and producer Horacio Czertok has devoted his life to re-imagining the art of the theatre, taking it out of its comfort zone into places of social conflict such as deprived suburban areas, prisons and mental hospitals, as well as open, public spaces, engaging directly with audiences in a spirit of abiding, carnivalesque, and deeply political theatrical experimentation. Adapting a rigorous Stanislavskian theatrical training to the exigencies of raw, immediate encounters with audiences in marginal and open spaces, Czertok’s theatre-making is unique, not only in the kinds of capacities and skills it allows actors to develop, but also in the way it renders the question of political efficacy immanent to the very process of making theatre.

Providing Czertok’s own, highly personal account of his trajectory in the global scene of theatre-making over the past half-century, this is a book about the theatre of exile – a theatre of streets, prisons, hospitals, open to direct and unexpected encounters with audiences and their life-experiences.

Photos by Luca Gavagna

Una nuova veste, una nuova edizione, riveduta e aggiornata, di un libro che per anni è stato un punto di riferimento per molti teatranti e studiosi di teatro. Accanto all'avvincente racconto del percorso che ha portato il Teatro Nucleo al proprio metodo attuale di lavoro, Horacio Czertok inserisce stimolanti riflessioni sul teatro, fra antropologia e 'metodo'.