La new season of LAC (Lugano Arte e Cultura) opens on Sunday 29 September at 19 pm, leaving the stage to Isabelle Huppert. The French actress, famous for her performances in both cinema and theatre, will be a one woman show Berenice, a monologue inspired by the tragedy of the same name by Jean Racine, with the visionary direction of Romeo Castellucci.
The show will be repeated on Monday, September 30 at 20:30 p.m. The event is part of the FIT Festival, one of the most important cultural events in Italian-speaking Switzerland, dedicated to international theater.

"Berenice” and Romeo Castellucci: a visionary reinterpretation of a French classic

Berenice is one of the highest texts of the French dramatic tradition, a work that speaks of loneliness, abandonment and unrequited love. Racine composed the tragedy in 1670 and since then it has been a symbol of formal rigor and emotional depth.
Romeo Castellucci, already known to the LAC audience for having presented Democracy in America e Bros, now offers a deeply personal reading of this work, exploring the universal themes of loneliness and loss through a minimalist and evocative staging.

The collaboration between Castellucci and Isabelle Huppert

The director defined Huppert as “the synecdoche of the art of acting, of Western theater,” recounting how her very figure was an inspiration to complete in detail the reinterpretation of this classic text. Huppert, with her ability to explore and reinterpret, to make accessible, the most subtle recesses of the human soul, will be the only interpreter on stage, in a performance full of emotional and psychological intensity.

International production

The show, which will be performed in French with Italian surtitles, is a co-production involving the LAC and over ten international theater institutions. The original music was composed by Scott Gibbons , a longtime collaborator of Castellucci, while the costumes are by Dutch designer Iris Van Herpen , whose talent is recognized worldwide. Renowned for her creations that blend fashion and art, Van Herpen's creations are exhibited in the world's most prestigious museums, and she has certainly not skimped on her talent in this production.

Isabelle Huppert meets the public

Following the premiere on Sunday, September 29th, audiences will have the opportunity to attend an exclusive conversation between LAC artistic director Carmelo Rifici —recently receiving international awards for his work as a director—and Romeo Castellucci, with special guest Isabelle Huppert. This is an unmissable opportunity to delve deeper into the creative process and gain a deeper understanding of the thinking of these giants of contemporary theater.

The FIT Festival and the Extra Time Plus project

Bérénice 's debut also marks the start of the 33rd edition of the FIT Festival , a festival dedicated to international theater, which this year is enriched with the Extra Time Plus project . This initiative, involving four Swiss cultural institutions (far° Nyon, Südpol Luzern, FIT Festival, and LAC), aims to give visibility to the emerging scene, creating a network for exchange and discussion between artists.

The first Extra Time Plus event will be Saturday, September 28th at 9:00 PM, with Umarmung (Embrace), a work by Elvio Avila that explores the power of the embrace and its impact on serotonin production. On Sunday, September 29th, also at 9:00 PM, dancer and choreographer Marion Baeriswyl, accompanied by composer DCP, will present the show Mille lieues – inside , which reflects on our way of inhabiting the world and relating to the Earth. Finally, on Monday, September 30th at 7:00 PM, the young Locarno dancer Banca Berger will invite the audience to explore a universe of probability where dance, music, and mathematics meet with Bi-tà.

Pictures:
credit Jean Michel Blasco