Socíetas Raffaello Sanzio: Buchettino

Children and the importance of “home”.

The stage becomes a resonance chamber, where the children can hear the sounds of the tale - rumors, music, thuds, and blows coming from the ceiling and all the room’s walls.

In the mid-90s, one of the greatest performance theatres our time, Italian Socíetas Rafaello Sanzaio, experimented with theater for children.

From this period, one of the strongest pieces is the production of Buchettino (1995), Perault’s tale about Tom Thumb. The show has since then toured all over the world, but so far it has never been shown in Scandinavia. Now it will be presented in a Danish production using the original set design.

The children are invited through a red curtain into a closed wooden box of eight times ten meters. Already at this point, the smell of wood will take the experience in the direction of a hut in the forest. Actress Siri Haff Andersen welcomes the children. Inside the box, little beds are set up as in Perault’s tale. The actress tucks in the children. The light goes down. Some children are maybe a little scared and will need some extra attention, but gradually the children become calm and concentrated.

The actress in not just reading the tale about Tom Thumb and his six brothers, she is acting is with her voice. Outside the box you can hear all the sounds from the tale, complementing the actress’ reading. The whole bedroom becomes a resonance chamber for all occurrences told; besides recitative modulations, children can hear rumors, music, thuds, and blows coming from the ceiling and all the room’s walls.

During the show, which lasts for about an hour, the actress is aware of her role as storyteller as well as her responsibility to protect the children from the outside world. The tale is an intimate story about the importance of “home” set in a dramatic framework, which is both fascinating and original.

The pre-linguistic and sounds play an important role in the artistic work of Socíetas Raffaello Sanzio. The childhood (Infantia) means “before language”. “What kind of knowledge is it that the child acquires through its senses?” The voice is first of all sound. That is important in “Buchettino”. The voice is the material. The child must use the sound of the voice to create, sculpture and form a dramaturgy. In “Buchettino” the child will experience a dynamic exchange between its inner noise and the external noise. The child will, so to speak, learn to see with its voice.