Jake Mace
In the shadow of the epic Mount Etna, and across the past two weeks, the streets of Sicily’s second-largest city Catania have been filled with creative magic as Catania OFF Fringe Festival returned for its third annual edition. 59 shows from Italy and further afield have taken place in venues ranging from former sulphur works to luxury hotel conference rooms. We headed over to Catania to catch the final week of the Festival – and we found a festival humming with joy and wonder.
The Name
For the uninitiated – the name ‘Catania OFF Fringe’ finds its roots in the names of two long-running festivals, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Avignon Off Festival. Both festivals that begun in the shadow of exclusive international festivals, bringing outsider artists and throngs of wide-eyed punters into their respective cities. While there is no concurrent International Festival in the city, the Directors of Catania OFF Fringe have ensured that the ethos of platforming independent artists has remained at the fore.
The Idea
Two sentences on the festival’s website describing the OFF Fringe Festival drew us towards Catania:
A moment of sharing based on aggregation and social empathy, which aims to stimulate the creation and awareness of a new audience.
An idea that strikes at the very heart of what Fringe is, complimented by a look at the bigger picture…
An event that does not stop only at the stage, including everything that revolves around it, creating connections and synergies that are not only artistic.
These ideas shine both through the absorbing, entertaining performances and the immediate sense of community washing over you the moment you get to the festival. Within minutes of arriving, I was invited to join for a Sicilian Folk Dance lesson that evening, and talked through the array of English and non-verbal shows on offer.
The Community
A welcoming hand is extended out to you the moment you arrive. It’s a buzz that carries on late into the night, especially at larger venues such as the Zo Cultural Centre, which find the city’s arts-hungry crowds flocking to find out what’s on offer. A dedicated group of volunteers and staff join festival directors Francesca Vitale and Renato Lombardo in bringing the whole idea to life. Their organisation also puts together Milano OFF Fringe as part of the Italia OFF Fringe organisation.
Admittedly, it was at first a daunting prospect to arrive at a festival where the majority of the shows were in a language I didn’t speak particularly well. Catania OFF Fringe, however, is taking noticeable strides towards increasing accessibility for international audiences, even as the majority of the programme is in Italian.
Thankfully, everyone working in and around the festival was of immense help, and couldn’t do enough to welcome you to their city and festival. I hope this is an element of the festival that can continue to grow alongside its Italian-language heart, as the festival evolves in editions to come.
The Artists
Content Warning: Discussion of shows which cover eating disorders.
It’s always fascinating to try and situate the zeitgeist of the Fringe scene in a country other than where you mainly work. We’ve been lucky at Binge Fringe to dive into scenes from as far as Australia, Czechia, France, and Ireland – now we can add Italy, and the culturally fascinating island of Sicily, to that list.
The festival spanned genres from drama, to dance, physical theatre, music, stand-up comedy, and monologue. Blending character comedy with music and dance, Manila Barbati performed as L’Italica Madre (The Italian Mother) (lg. Italian), in an eponymous homage to mothers in this part of the World. Similarly taking on music and monologue, Mark Ligi performed Cosmocomico (lg. Italian), a philosophical look at subjectivity and the human condition.
Body image and eating disorders were among the recurring themes of the festival, covered in two poignant and important shows. ED Recovery (lg. Italian & English) was a verbatim melting pot of testimony and truths from young women surrounding both of those issues compiled by Lia Locatelli, focused on discussing recovery and raising awareness surrounding eating disorders. Conosco l’amore solo per sentito dire (I Only Know Love by Hearsay) (lg. Italian & English) similarly covered these topics, handling the disconnect between body, mind, and body image.
International work performed at the festival included sharp, bounding, and often hilarious, satire of the 24 hour news cycle News (lg. Non-Verbal) from the Netherlands-based Ukraine-originated 044 Mime Company, alongside Swiss performer Elsa Couvreur, of Woman’s Move, and their acclaimed touring production The Sensemaker (lg. Italian/Non-Verbal, elements performed in multiple languages worldwide) exploring objectification through frenzied fragments of audio.
Whew, and that’s only a handful of what was on offer!
The Spaces
Spanning the length and breadth of the city, fifteen venues hosted Fringe performances across the Festival, with a number of other spaces dedicated to various networking events, workshops, and late night afterparties to give the festival an all-day, inclusive and expansive feel.
A quickly-found favourite of mine was the aforementioned Zo Centro Culture Contemporanee – comprised of two theatres, alongside a lovely bar and affordable restaurant producing tasty local dishes. Zo backs directly onto the festival’s heart, the Fringe Village, in Le Ciminiere. Both buildings were part of a complex of former sulphur works, turning the city’s volcanic and industrial heritage into a space for new work to blossom.
Classic and modern theatre spaces in the city centre joined more unconventional spaces such as the indoor market at Piazza Scammacca and a theatre nestled in the courtyard of the Palazzo Scammacca too.
The Shows
As for how the shows themselves were, stay tuned for an upcoming article with a round-up set of reviews of everything Binge Fringe caught over our time at Catania OFF Fringe.
The Future
This year, Catania OFF Fringe ran from the 17th to the 27th October. Keep up with information about future editions on their website.
Pair this Festival with…
Some of the finest Negronis you’ll ever drink – thank you Catania!
Main Photo Credit: Mateusz Butkiewicz
