Futurism in the Theater with Massimiliano Finazzer Flory

We are not done talking about futurism in the US... indeed in addition to the exhibition currently held at the Guggenheim Museum there is going to be a play that's addressing the topic. Organized in collaboration between the Embassy of Italy in Washington DC, the Italian Consulates and Cultural Institutes, Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò New York University and Acqua di Parma, the tour, will touch several American cities, including New York.  Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and the movement he started will be celebrated at the prestigious Lincoln Center.


The first “Gran Serata Futurista” (Great Futurist Evening), starring Massimiliano Finazzer Flory, will take place in Washington on May 12, and then Dartmouth, Philadelphia, Chicago, New York, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Houston will follow.


The show comes directly from Piccolo Teatro di Milano where it was a success. The play tells the story of  Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, and it is a mixture of acting, contemporary dance and projections of images of art works. The performance. Which lasts 70 minutes and a few seconds, is in Italian, but there are also English supertitles for non-Italian speakers.


"Futurism", explains Finazzer Flory in Italian daily Corriere della Sera (August 11, 2013), "celebrated life, of which man is the foremost masterpiece and energy the foremost work of art. But what energy do we see today? We live in a time which unites us all politically in the name of transformation and conformity. And so, as Papini would say, opening the windows is no longer enough: we must have the courage to knock down a few doors. Better to disturb the peace than play the compliant chimpanzee".


This is the third consecutive year that Finazzer Flory brings a show to the US. In 2011-2012 he came with I Promessi sposi  (The Betrothed), in 2013 he brought Pinocchio, storia di un burattino (Pinocchio, the story of a puppet), and now it's the time of Gran Serata Futurista. This play is about movement, energy, mechanical splendor, and unconstrained imagination. Finazzer Flory voices the Manifesti Futuristi  (Futurist Manifestos) of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, because with no Marinetti there will be no Futurism. And just in the style of the futurists, Finazzer Flory  “attacks” those who live in the past as they are “just like the sick or the prisoners who see the past as a healing balsam and the future as prison bars...”



Tour Dates


May 12th ,WASHINGTON – Italian Embassy

May 14th , DARTMOUTH - Hopkins Center for the Arts - Moore Theater

May 16th , PHILADELPHIA - Simeone Museum

May 19th ,CHICAGO - Chicago Cultural Center - Claudia Cassidy Theater

May 21th, NEW YORK - Lincoln Center - Kaplan Penthouse

May 23th, BOSTON  Cambridge MA - Dante Alighieri Society

May 27th, SAN FRANCISCO - Legion of Honor – Fine Arts Museums

May 29th, LOS ANGELES - Italian Cultural Institute – Sala Rossellini

June 3nd, HOUSTON - St. Thomas University - Cullen Theatre Hall