The Dramaturgy of Sound and Vocality in the Theatre of Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio

Abstract

This chapter examines the vocal and sonorous dramaturgy of a series of performances by the Italian experimental theatre company Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio, fromSanta Sofia(1986) to the cycleTragedia Endogonidia(2002–2004). The company aimed to create a new language calledGeneralissima, to satisfy the need for a re-foundation of theanti-logosof the word. Thus it experimented with the conflict that exists between voice and body and between the spoken word and action. The voice constitutes a terrain for experimentation, an adequate domain for the theatre to be regenerated, using the body to the side of technological manipulation of the voice. The aim is to allow the story to be told by sound, by the materiality of the voice, of the text and of the senseless utterances, together with the tactile sensations created by the physical characteristics of the environment.