text Matthieu Pastore
direction Aldo Cassano
with Giuseppe Affinito, Matthieu Pastore
costum and scenes Aldo Cassano, Lucia Lapolla
music Antonio Spitaleri
lights Giuseppe Sordi
direction assistant Natascia Curci
organization Vanessa Radrizzani
production Animanera ETS

National Preview

Saint Sebastian, with his translucent skin, his muscles, and the arrows piercing his body, has become part of the pop culture imagination. This shift is explored by Pastore’s dramaturgy through his story and his hagiography, understood as a journey of revelation and acceptance.
“This is what I’d like to convey through the story of Sebastian: a journey of self-affirmation. Beyond the hagiography itself, it is the aesthetic and emotional characteristics of the classical Saint Sebastian - the question of the body, the gaze of others, and illness—that lie at the heart of the play. In the form of a station drama, each scene represents a station of the saint’s Way of the Cross. Is what happens to Sebastiano a martyrdom or a miracle? I don’t know yet, but it’s still happening today, as if history were echoing that of the saint, as if becoming a saint meant becoming oneself and encountering God were like encountering love.”