Tiresias Never Made It to New York

Tiresias has seen everything. Man and woman, mortal and immortal, blinded and endowed with the gift of prophecy — and yet, somehow, never truly understood. In the Creative Europe cooperation project Tra-NET, this ancient figure steps into the present: divided across three cities (Milan, Berlin, Avignon), three languages, three stages, in search of an elusive and necessary unity.

On Wednesday 20 May at 18:30 the open rehearsal of Tiresias Never Made It to New York will take place in Sala dei 146 (IULM 6). On stage, an innovative transnational and multilingual theatre co-production that brings together Pacta.dei Teatri (Milan, Italy), Multicultural City (Berlin) and Les Rencontres du Chapeau Rouge (Avignon).The three companies are partners of IULM in the Creative Europe cooperation project Tra NET – (Trans)National European Theatre: audiovisual tools and simultaneous interpreting for the internationalisation of theatre production and consumption. The co-production, part of the second edition of the Clashing Classics Festival, which in its first year featured performances of European classics (Pirandello, Fassbinder, Marivaux), will premiere on 28–29 May at Salone Pacta (Via Dini, 7 – Milan) and, simultaneously, in Berlin and Avignon. The final performance will take place on 22–23 July 2026 in the Off section of the Avignon Festival.

Within the project, IULM is responsible for technical support for streaming as well as for all activities related to translation and interpreting.

In this experimental format, each company performs live on its own stage while the other two simultaneously take part via streaming, thanks to the technical support of Lorenzo Mosna, Alex De Micheli and Emanuele Prestileo, creating a unique and shared performance space that transcends physical boundaries.

The co-produced performance preserves the polyphonic richness of T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, which inspires it. At the same time, its multilingual dimension is made fully accessible through live surtitles created by Donatella Codonesu and Mara Logaldo in collaboration with students from the MA programme in Specialised Translation and Conference Interpreting — Arina Khamatdinova, Agnese Pegoraro, Jennifer Ritucci, Giorgia Tesini — offering audiences an immediate and inclusive experience of the work. Given the attendance of the open rehearsal by an international audience from the CIUTI conference, held at IULM in the same week, the surtitles will be in English.

At its centre is Tiresias, the mythical seer who has lived both as a man and as a woman, who has “seen everything” yet remains condemned to incomprehension. Tiresias becomes the connecting thread between the three cities: a single consciousness divided into three bodies, three languages, three spaces and three temporalities. Through live dialogue, visual echoes and shared timing, this experimental performance unites the physical presence of actors with the virtual presence of performers connected from distant stages. Together, these elements create a unified narrative offering an original intercultural perspective on our shared present.

Through this collaboration, technology, translation and artistic exchange converge to create a truly European theatrical experience, capable of bringing together diverse audiences within a single interconnected cultural space.

The open rehearsal offers a rare opportunity to observe the creative process in action, where languages, media and performance meet on stage.

The event has been organised with the support of the Faculty of Interpreting and Translation and is open to all.

CREDITS:

Production: les rencontres du Chapeau rouge (Avignon-France), PACTA. dei Teatri (Milan-Italy), multicultural city e.V. (Berlin-Germany) co-founded by the European Union.
Dramaturgy: Paolo Bignamini, Monika Dobrowlanska
Adaptation: Paolo Bignamini
Stage Direction: Helen Landau (Avignon), Annig Raimondi (Milan), Monika Dobrowlanska (Berlin)
Direction Assistant: Elisabetta Miracoli (Milan)
Video: José Joilan (Avignon), Fulvio Michelazzi (Milan), Yukihiro Ikutani, Katja Skladmann (Berlin)
Set Design: José Joilan (Avignon), Fulvio Michelazzi (Milan), Yukihiro Ikutani, Katja Skladmann (Berlin)
Costumes: Nefeli Moustakas /Constance Bradburn (Avignon), Nir Lagziel (Milan), Katja Skladmann (Berlin)
Lights: José Joilan (Avignon), Fulvio Michelazzi (Milan) 
Sound: José Joilan (Avignon), Maurizio Pisati (Milan)
Live Streaming and Audiovisual Production: Lorenzo Mosna with the collaboration of Alex De Micheli and Emanuele Prestileo (IULM University)
Surtitles: Donatella Codonesu and Mara Logaldo, with the collaboration of Arina Khamatdinova, Agnese Pegoraro, Jennifer Ritucci, Giorgia Tesini (IULM University)
With: Anaïs Gabay, Martina Ribera Saavedra, Patrick Séminor (Avignon), Anna Germani, Annig Raimondi (Milan), Alex Lee (Berlin)
Project assistant: Valentina Citterio (Avignon University)
Tra-Net project coordinator: Paola Ranzini (Avignon University)

For more information, please visit the project website: https://tra-net.eu/