In a suburb of Naples, a group of young people plays football together every night. They dream about better (football) life. Some of them come from the immigrant families from all over the world, some are unemployed Italians – all of them the scugnizzi (a term used for the Neapolitan street children). The lives of these emarginati, (the marginalized once) are suspended between their gray reality and the unfulfilled dreams about football. They are too old to start football career, too young to give up the hopes. One day, the Stranger comes among them. Suddenly they find themselves in the boots of some of the greatest players. The story-telling, music, dance, football, drama and video interplay in this football dance theatre show.
In 2010, East West Theatre Company was invited to create an international theatre and dance production FOOTBALL, FOOTBALL that was written and directed by Haris Pašović, and produced together with Napoli Teatro Festival, Singapore Arts Festival, Les Ballet C de la B, legendary contemporary dance company and Flota Institute from Slovenia. Since the opening in May 2010, the show has been performed for 15 times on 3 continents (Europe, Asia and Africa). The artists coming from 4 continents (Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia) and 7 countries (Italy, Slovenia, Singapore, Burkina Faso, Bosnia and Herzegovina, China and Australia) got together in this unique piece, the biggest about the football ever produced.
Football itself is a show;it is the most popular show on Earth,whether it is played on a street or at a large stadium.It is massively theatrical,Dionysian in a nature.It is a pure form of excitement of a play,and it has no meaning.It is a great variety of movements,partly controlled,partly spontaneous.It requires a strategy but one of the most important things in football is emotion.Football is a language that is most understood in the world.It is shared by great many cultures;it transcends the borders,nations,races and religions.It is one of the most shared phenomena in human kind.It is accessible to everyone.
At the beginning of our work,we started to explore football – the Beautiful Game.We were interested in a game itself;the art of football;,the inner dynamics of the game;its irrational nature.
There is a paradox of unpredictability and control in football.There is a balance of an individual action and a team play.Verbal language disperses, which is dance in nature.We arrived to an edgy style of dance-football in our show.The work with international cast brought us the most wonderful diversity in the artistic approaches, languages and experiences!
Director and Author
Haris Pasovic
Performers
Stefano Ferraro, Ibrahim Ouattara, Philip Tan, Terry Lee, Andrea Capaldi, Alessandro Schiattarella, Terrence Ong, Francesco Pacelli, Adi Hrustemović, Azri Majilan, Miha Askerc
Assistant director
Yvonne Yuen
Creative Team
Justin Hill – Set designer, Phillip Tan – Composer, Andy Lim – Light designer, Casey Lim – Video designer, Laichan – Costume designer
Executive Producers
Mascia Pavon, Woon Ying Chin, Ismar Hadziabdic
Producers
Haris Pasovic, Renato Quaglia, Kee Hong Low, Lieven Thyrion, Matjaz Faric
Napoli Teatro Festival
Renato Quaglia, Mascia Pavon, Marciano Rizzo, Gaetano Piscopo, Gianluca Tomasella, Ilaria Cecci,Dino Rossi
Singapore Arts Festival
Kee Hong Low, Woon Ying Chin
East West Theatre Company
Haris Pasovic, Ismar Hadziabdic, Sanela Brcic, Nermin Hamzagic, Nihad Mahmutovic, Lejla Abazovic, Muamer Causevic, Alen Huric
Co produced by
Napoli Teatro Festival, Singapore Arts Festival, East West Theatre Company, Les Ballet C de la B, Flota
™ 2010
