Residency

Mariasole Brusa & Eva Luna Betelli

Duration

1 – 14 February 2027

Efestiade (courtesy of Manipulate)

Residency Types

International Visual Theatre Residency Partnership

Image: Efestiade (courtesy of Manipulate)

Efestiade (Italy) brings together object theatre, engineering, science and dance through an encounter between bodily gesture, metallic matter and archaic myth. Structured as a visual poem in which inorganic materials, magnets, metal sheets and wire sculptures animated by the performers will become unstable creatures, ritual instruments, inner presences and tangible metaphors.

At the heart of the story will be Hephaestus, the god who, more than any other, embodies the human paradox: fragile yet immensely powerful, brilliant yet wounded, capable of creating wonders and, through the very same impulse, lethal instruments. The figure of Hephaestus becomes a prism through which to question humanity’s relationship with technology and the responsibility that arises from the very act of forging — beginning with iron itself, the material whose essence Hephaestus embodies, and upon which almost every form of human progress depends, as well as every weapon capable of destroying it.

Mariasole Brusa

Puppeteer, playwright, and director. After earning a degree in philosophy and training as a dramaturg and actress, she has been working in puppet theatre since 2010. She founded All’InCirco Teatro, collaborated with Coppelia Theatre, and has been a partner of Teatro del Drago since 2019. She has received numerous awards, including the Under-35 Directing Prize of the Venice Biennale 2024, finalist for the Riccione Prize for Playwriting 2025, SIAE grants in 2023 and 2022, the BUGS Grant 2021, the ERT Performing Arts Award 2020, finalist for SCENARIO Infanzia 2019, and the European Narrating Equality Award 2019.

At the core of her poetics lies a strong focus on dramaturgy, not only in its textual form but also in its visual and emotional dimensions, as well as the idea that theatre can serve as a method of philosophical inquiry. Her research operates at the boundary between puppet theatre and animation cinema, screenplay and dramaturgy, with the aim of hybridizing different complementary traditional art techniques with contemporary experimentation.

Eva Luna

After earning a degree in Philosophy, in 2017 she graduated as an aerial acrobat from the Flic Circus School in Turin. In 2022, she received the Adelaide Ristori Award for Best Actress for La Singolarità di Schwarzschild. She is currently a performer in Golem, winner of the Under-35 Directing Prize at the Venice Biennale 2024, and is the creator of Critters, a research-based contemporary dance solo.

Eva Luna Betelli, a physical artist, explores the body as a translation of philosophical reflections on contemporary events. Advocating for an embodied form of thought, she seeks a body that becomes an antenna of its time, capable of absorbing the spirit of the present and returning it through a corporeal metaphor. Her hybrid practice combines the languages of contemporary circus and research-based dance, investigating an extraordinary corporeality that offers images of a fragmented present. Her focus on the image within her physical practice acts as a cut into the present, opening up a space for shared reflection between artist and audience.

Teatro del Drago

Teatro del Drago is the company of one of the oldest performing Italian arts families active since the first half of the nineteenth century: the Monticelli family.

The company’s activity takes place on two fronts: that of tradition, with traditional puppet shows; that of research, through contemporary puppetry original both in the use of materials and in the animation techniques.

Taking place in early 2027, the International Visual Theatre Residency is a new initiative delivered in partnership with Manipulate Arts and international festival partners Arrivano dal Mare! (Ravenna, Italy), TIP-Fest (Turku, Finland) and Go Figure! (Oslo, Norway). The programme supports mid-stage development for ambitious visual theatre projects, creating space for artistic exchange, experimentation, and the development of high-quality new work.

Six projects from artists across Scotland, Finland, Italy and Norway will be supported. Audiences will be able to check out early performance sharings of these projects as part of Undercurrents, Manipulate Arts’ new event championing bold, untested new visual theatre, puppetry and animated film in February 2027.

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