LA RIBELLIONE DEGLI SPETTATORI
THE SPECTATORS’ REBELLION

Menoventi’s theatre is made of boxes with other boxes inside. Inside are actors and actresses pretending to pretend, directed by directors who are playing themselves. Someone has described direction as a dam where the audience’s perception may move, but Menoventi’s theatre, on closer inspection, also always conceals an invitation to break such a dam, so that water gushes. Menoventi invites us to rebel. But, what if we could seize power during a performance? Would the theatre end? We will go over some of the company’s works assuming this hypothesis: from the Orwellian traffic light of In festa (2005) to the obedient spectators of InvisibilMente (2008), we will think over the pact sealed with the Devil in Postilla (2009) and, finally, we will sit again in our place as spectators watching spectators in Entertainment (2022).