Festival of the Geothermal Hills

Wednesday, June 26, 2024, in Monterotondo Marittimo, starting at 5 PM, the "Festival of the Geothermal Hills" begins.
The Festival of the Geothermal Hills was born in 2012 in Pomarance (PI) as a summer series of 4 theatrical events held at the Rocca di Sillano. Over the years, the project has grown to attract the interest of other towns, partners, and supporters. From a single location, it has developed into a widespread festival – dedicated to contemporary dramaturgy but open to embracing multidisciplinarity (dance, circus, music) – which takes place in the most representative locations of the territory (the squares of historic villages, nature reserves) and theaters, but also revitalizes some spaces closed to the public, transforming them into unusual stages for an evening. The Festival of the Geothermal Hills brings to the Tuscan hinterland renowned names from the national/international theater scene and emerging talents, to introduce the audience to the most interesting paths of artistic research, ranging from novelties, revisited classics of literature, debuts, and repertoire successes.
Calendar of events taking place in Monterotondo Marittimo:

June 26
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM V. Magenta Playground FANTASTIC CARTOGRAPHY with Valentina Lisi
Participants will be guided by the artist, after a brief introduction to the history of cartography, to reflect on their inner landscapes composed of desires, dreams, and wonders, leading them to create their own map of desires.

6:30 PM - 8:00 PM Teatro del Ciliegio STEP BY STEP with Nicoletta Bernardini
The Wanderer is one who takes time and does not let time take him. Those who walk choose the time to pause, to stay. Foot-thought is a thought that knows how to wait, does not "produce" at the rhythms and times of a world that runs unable to listen. Foot-thought is a work of rooting in the ground and places. Walking consciously, slowly, is reclaiming a relationship with places. Pausing: for a time, a time that allows me to feel my breath. A time to connect with the body, the different parts, and the whole. A time to try to find shared breath and action. A time to experiment with wise, ancient gestures, which I discover to be deeply linked to our daily, simple gestures. We resume the Silent Walk. As I walk, I listen to my breath, I am aware of the contact of my feet with the ground, and of the contact my gaze has with the world around me. As I walk, I become a Witness of my going, with all of myself.

9:30 PM Piazza Ateo ARTABAN The Legend of the Fourth Wise Man with Casalini Antonio Catalano and the La Rinascente Band
"Four were the three Wise Men," an ancient formula says. So why did the fourth miss the appointment with the others in Bethlehem to adore the Child? What path did he take? And what gifts did he carry with him? Questions that find an answer in the sweet tale of Antonio Catalano, poet of Wonder and small things, who reveals the story of the Wise Man Artaban, intent on mending the world and chasing tailed stars, in a jester's tale in chapters. Everyone sits together like in an ancient vigil to listen to words, magic, songs, and love letters. Traveling with the Wise Man on his swaying camel, one makes unexpected and unforgettable encounters, amid smiles and emotion, wonder, and mysteries from the dawn of time.

10:30 PM Teatro del Ciliegio PETRUSINU with Collettivo Caligo
"Petrusinu" opens with a simple dinner between a grandmother and her two grandchildren: Isabella and Fausto. Sergio, the father of the two children, returns home shortly after from the day's work and sits at the table with the family. But something goes wrong: Sergio sends the children out of the room and, almost without real reason, violently attacks the mother, killing her. From that moment, the explosion of a raw-nerve crisis will bring Sergio, Isa, and Fausto to a final confrontation, breaking a long-lasting silence that probably started from Sergio's divorce from his wife, Teresa. Faced with the inexplicable death of the old woman, every language is explored, including choreography in music. The grandmother will therefore be forced to resurrect to try to clarify things for each of them. The miraculous event becomes the opportunity for this family to truly talk. A puzzle of anecdotes, flashbacks, and flashforwards to piece together what seemed already destroyed.

August 5
9:30 PM Piazza Magenta ARRUSI A.T.I.R. - National Preview by Gabriele Scotti with Marika Pensa, Simone Tudda, Sandra Zoccolan directed by Omar Nedjari
There are little-told or even ignored stories: that of homosexuals who, during Fascism, were confined to detention islands in the name of race and costume purity; or who, under Francoism in Spain, were subjected to forced reeducation; or today's stories, such as that of the prosecutor's office in Padua which, in the spring of 2023, contested the birth certificates of 33 children born to same-sex couples composed of two mothers. These real-life events inspire the stories in this show: those of Francesco, a young man from Catania confined to the Tremiti Islands in 1939; Amparo, a mother from Valencia who reports her son to the authorities in 1970; Aurelia, an Italian woman today who risks losing her parenthood over her child at a very delicate moment for her. Three stories of homosexuality from the early twentieth century to today, of denied, erased rights, of injustices suffered. Arrusi is the gripping, epic tale of forgotten or little-told pages of history where diversity, the struggle for freedom, and Great History mingle.

August 14
9:30 PM Loc. IL FRASSINE, Piazza del Santuario LEAR AND HIS FOOL by and with Luca Radaelli and Walter Broggini
Reading Shakespeare, one encounters a reality of contrasts: the high and the low, the elevated and the vulgar, the comic and the tragic. In his perhaps darkest tragedy, "King Lear," Shakespeare takes away from the spectator every certainty, every fixed point: the king converses with his fool and it is unclear who the fool is; the seemingly good children are bad and vice versa. Despite the famous line "Ripeness is all," the characters react childishly, almost like puppets in the hands of fate... Walter Broggini (a puppeteer who has toured all over Europe with his adult puppet theater show "Solo") meets Luca Radaelli (an actor who has already tackled Shakespearean theater with "Macbeth Banquet" using objects) to bring to life a King Lear that draws its energy from popular theater, farce, the demonic ballet of wooden heads, where one laughs at the fool's lines but at the same time reflects on a world where the mad lead the blind.