Fire or the abandonment

One of the major themes in ‘Andrej Rublev’ is that of leaving. The progressive lost of the artistic action as well as the constant changement, the mild resignation to the changement.
This is closely linked to the theme of the bell, the changement that creates the transformation from  a liquid to a solid state, the bronze: when fire attacks an element, it does it by penetrating in its cracks, in its wounds.
And then it destroys it and turns it to dust.
In this sense, fire is what brings along abandonment and makes force turn into weakness since, as Tarkovskij says in Stalker, ‘weakness is power and power is nothing’.
It is abandonment which seems to create the energy necessary for acting. It is the awareness of the uselessness of power and the vitality of weakness that makes our constant and ineffable acting alive.
Which is the relation among the fight of men, their resistance and theatre?

Instinct, necessity and life
Both Rublev and Boris follow their instinct of survival. In Davai, Masque Teatro discovers a particular truth by learning how a bell gets created and fused, how a blacksmith works, how bronze should be treated.

Davai (Go! - in Russian) stems from the collaboration between ‘Masque Teatro’ and  Santarcangelo dei Teatri as well as from their common wish to create a project able to overcome the physical limits of theatre in order to make the thought of the company concrete.
The project is divided into three stages. The first stage started in April with a workshop for actors that took place in the company artistic seat in Forlì (The perception of the proportions) then went on in Santarcangelo with another workshop (The volume of things) end ended with a public performance (Rhythms that can be perceived by the eye) to which the actors attending the different workshops took part.

The perception of the proportions
April 28th,29th,30th,- May 1st,2nd - ‘Actor foundryman’ workshop
This workshop took place in the company seat, which was previously arranged for it. The workshop lasted five days and 20 actors – professional and not - took part in it. On this occasion, they stayed in a house in the country placed at their disposal by Masque Teatro. The house was called ‘LA FORNACE’. There the fusion and working of iron occurred.

The volume of things
 July from 1st to 6th    Santarcangelo - Workshop
The workshop took place in Santarcangelo in the open quarry, near the Marecchia river. According to the project, a group of new actors should have joined the performance a few days after the first performance. The workshop lasted six days and 20 actors took part in it. They were the ‘element unconnected with the situation’, like an exterior and suspicious eye, necessary for the project. After six days, they were inserted as the coral element in the performance.

Rhythms that can be perceived by the eye
July 7th,8th,9th,10th,11th  Santarcangelo - Performances
The staging began on June 20th in Santarcangelo. The works were carried on in two places at the same time: Piazza Garganelli, a large place where THE FOUNDRYMAN HUT and THE QUERRY ON THE MARECCHIA RIVER were built. This huge place was, in its turn, divided into three smaller places: the grove - a little island connected to the land from one side – the foundry – a large place inside the quarry that was turned into the bell foundry – and the beach – a strip of land in front of the lake behind the foundry.