Beijing Project n.06 Fabrizio Massini 丰翼

Fabrizio Massini 丰翼 has been active in Florence’s experimental theatre scene since his teens. In 2002 he began studying Chinese language and culture in Italy and China, and in 2008 he brought his two passions together by studying Chinese theatre, first at SOAS in London and then at the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing.

His interest in the Social Sensibility programme had several roots. First, the rapid and constant transformation of Chinese society, which he had already explored with his own theatre company, Elephant in the Room, founded in Beijing in 2009, and as international consultant to the Beijing International Fringe Festival. Second, a long period – a year – of interaction with the factory workers offered a rare chance to explore the nuances of intercultural communication. Finally, the project crossed a personal journey: rediscovering the past of his parents, factory workers and trade unionists in Italy in the 1960s and 1970s.

He began by meeting as many people as possible in the factory and getting to know them in their working environment, keeping a daily diary of everyone’s names, interests and conversations. The encounter deepened when he went through the basic training the company gives every employee, and he came to know some colleagues beyond their role at Bernard Controls, in their lives outside the factory.

His aim was to create a theatre performance inside the factory, involving the people of Bernard Controls in every aspect of a stage production – concept, design, acting and directing – and to include, through multimedia, elements of his parents’ story, to build a further level of empathy and exchange between two contexts so far apart in space and time. At the time of writing, the work was in progress.

Fabrizio Massini on Vimeo