The reworking of "The Cyclops" the satyr drama by Euripides allowed the Azuni High School of Sassari to win the first prize for the most artistically original solution in the ninth edition of the "Festival Thauma - Teatro Antico in Scena", organized by the Catholic University of Sacred Heart of Milan, conceived and directed by the teacher Elisabetta Matelli.
The Sassari institute, the only Sardinian school among the other fifteen in the competition from Lombardy, Piedmont, Lazio and Puglia, won thanks to the work created together with the director Sante Maurizi at the conclusion of a theater workshop which saw the students of the addresses as protagonists classical, dance and music in the "Classics for us" project. The show, lasting about forty-five minutes, was awarded by the jury as an "explosive version of Euripides' Cyclops, full of ideas and creativity: a very successful artistic operation in which the group of very young performers shows a vitality and surprising".
The representation privileges the aspects of play and parody, with an amused and characteristic "island" coloratura, particular attention to the choral nature of the staging and a translation from the original text attentive to current events. On the stage comes a group of somewhat monkey-like satyrs, stupid and pusillanimous, led by a treacherous and handy Silenus, with some group management problems, all in forced service with Polyphemus, a giant one-eyed rural, ruthless and philosopher who one fine day he is visited by two fateful strangers: Odysseus and the wine.
The teachers Nicola Cadoni and Andrea Coghene, respectively coordinator of the theater workshop and author of the translation of the original text, accompanied the students to Milan, Davide Soddu for the music and arrangements and Roberto Mura for the preparation of the wind instruments and in the exceptional role of percussionist , the director Sante Maurizi for the direction, the lights and the voice of Polifemo, the actress Daniela Cossiga for the make-up and costumes, while in Sassari the choreography of the dance high school was curated by the teachers Valentina Chelli Florian and Cristina Tagliaverga.
The classical high school students engaged in the roles of the various characters were Maria Berdini, Giulia Capra, Barbara Contini, Matilde Ermini, Eleonora Forte, Alessandro Lai, Tullio Meloni, Elena Sanna, Alessandra Satta, Lara Satta, Federica Sechi, Maria Sechi, Morgana Siddi and Lucia Uzzau. The pupils Aurora Casci, Beatrice Piretta, Linda Pignata and the pupil Mattia Cossu of the choreutic high school performed the choreography, while the pupils of the musical high school Enea Faedda on the clarinet, Davide Cordeddu on the horn, Andrea Polo and Gioia Giola on the trumpets and Andrea Deriu on trombone interpreted the music.
