Bolzano, 1938

Antonio Tarantino works as a painter until 1993 when he makes his debut on the theatre scene with the plays Stabat Mater and La passione secondo Giovanni (The Passion According to Saint John) that gain him the Riccione Prize. In that same year he writes Il vespro della Beata Vergine (Vesper of the Virgin Mary) that, along with Lustrini (Sequins) and the debut plays, compose the Four Profane Plays: a “tetralogy of the treatment” of classical-religious inspiration staged in the 90ies by the French-Tunisian director Chérif.
The productivity bonus received after being awarded the 44^th Riccione Prize in 1997 allows him to stage Materiali per una tragedia tedesca (Material for a German Tragedy), a sarcastic and brutal portrait of Germany’s 1970s terror. The play premieres at Milan Piccolo Teatro in 2000 and is awarded the Ubu Prize in the same year. La pace (Peace) and La casa di Ramallah (The House in Ramallah), both written in 2002, deal respectively with terrorism and the Arab-Israeli conflict and along with Stranieri (Foreigners, 2009), they emphasize the connection between private life and history. His works Nel mondo grande e terribile (In This Big Terrible World, 2008) and Gramsci a Turi (Gramsci in Turi, 2009) were inspired by Antonio Gramsci’s life, and were followed by a reinterpretation of Medea (2011) and the monologues Cara Medea (Dear Medea) and Piccola Antigone (Little Antigone, 2012).

Theatre works
1993/Stabat Mater
1993/La passione secondo Giovanni
1993/Vespro della beata vergine
1999/2000/Materiali per una tragedia tedesca
2002/La pace
2002/La casa di Ramallah
2008/Nel mondo grande e terribile
2009/Gramsci a Turi
2009/Stranieri
2011/Trittico
2011/Medea
2012/Cara Medea
2012/Piccola Antigone

Materiali per una tragedia tedesca (Material for a German tragedy)

The play “Materiali per una tragedia tedesca” deals with the so-called German Autumn: the attacks conducted by the RAF, the kidnapping and murder of Schleyer, president of the German employers’ association, the hijacking of a Lufthansa flight to Mogadishu by a PFLP group, the violent repression of Schmidt’s government that culminated in the killing of the hijackers and the suicide of the German terrorists imprisoned in Stammheim.

Tarantino portrays Germany’s identity crisis in a dark time of political crisis using a typical classical structure. The characters speak an everyday language rich with brilliant puns with a comical effect, taking the common people on a journey across the continents and beyond the boundaries of life.

Edition 2015-2016