Romeo Castellucci was born in 1960 in Cesena, Italy. He graduated with a degree in painting and scenography from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna. In 1981, jointly with Claudia Castellucci and Chiara Guidi, he founded Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio. Since then he has produced numerous plays in the role of author, director and creator of scenes, lights, sound and costumes. He is known all over the world as an author of theater based on the totality of the arts, aimed at creating an integral perception; he has also written various essays on the theory of directing plays, which trace the development of his type of theater. His directing is characterized by dramatic lines that are not subject to the primacy of literature, but rather make of theater a plastic, complex art, rich with visions. This has developed a comprehensible language in the same way that music, sculpture, painting and architecture can be. His plays are regularly invited and produced by the most prestigious theaters and festivals all over the world.
On February 22, 2002 Romeo Castellucci was assigned the title “Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres” by the Ministry of Culture of the French Republic in the person of Cathérine Tasca. In 2007 Romeo Castellucci was nominated “Artiste Associé ” by the artistic direction of the Festival d’Avignon for the 62nd edition in 2008. Here he presented the powerful trilogy Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy.
In 2010 Le Monde named the trilogy dedicated to the Divine Comedy the best play and one of the ten most influential cultural events in the world for the decade 2000-2010.
Societas Raffaello Sanzio
Founded in 1981 in Cesena in northern Italy by the painter and set designer Romeo Castellucci, the musician Chiara Guidi and the theorist Claudia Castellucci, Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio soon established an international reputation as one of the most fascinating contemporary theatre companies, renowned for the aesthetic radicalism and profound humanity of its plays. While inspired by classics of Western culture (works by Aeschylus, Dante and Shakespeare), the theatre that Romeo Castellucci and Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio produce follows the performance philosophy of Antonin Artaud where, much more than the text, bodies – often atypical – concentrate and condense meaning in a stage context of thunderous soundtracks and intense imagery. High tech is combined with the age-old crafts of dramatic art to create worlds that transpose reality through a series of diffractions. Spectacular by nature, Castellucci’s theatre questions the world we live in from an essentially humanist point of view. His previous FTA presentations include Orestea (una commedia organica?) (1997), Genesi. From the museum of sleep (1999) and Hey Girl! (2007). His major works include Tragedia Endogonidia (2002-2004), an 11-episode cycle of tragic theatre and his Dante trilogy La Divina Commedia – Inferno, Purgatorio e Paradiso. The first part was presented at the Avignon Festival in 2008, where he was an associate artist that year, and the trilogy was named by Le Monde newspaper as one of the best cultural productions of the decade.
