Apecar Theatre Stage

Apecar Theatre Stage is a theatre project which wants to bring theatre to the streets, with the aim of reaching audiences in places where there is usually no artistic intervention.

Now more than ever, we need theatre to get back out on the streets. Just as in the Middle Ages, when it was normal to perform outdoors, the restrictions imposed by the pandemic have forced us to leave the theatre buildings and find open-air theatre.

The forced closure of theatrical spaces and the rules of physical distance imposed by Covid-19 have led Váli Theatre Lab to think of a theatre that reaches spectators in squares and courtyards, a theatre that resumes its nomadic and itinerant vocation. At a historical moment when theatres no longer seem necessary, it is the artist’s task to make them indispensable and useful to society.

By coming back to public places, theatres can and must regain its community, unifying capacity and its value in society, which it has embodied since antiquity.

In the Middle Ages, for example, there were “Pageant Wagons”, travelling wooden wagons pulled by oxen, which were used to perform religious shows. When these carts came to town, the streets and squares were transformed into open-air theatres. The floats, after their parade through the city, with the audience joining in, stopped somewhere and the actors started the show.

Taking inspiration from the scenic concept behind these structures, Váli Theatre Lab had the idea to make Ape Car as a modern “Pageant Wagons”.

This small three-wheeled motor vehicle with Italian roots, invented in 1948 to fill the need for transport means after the war. Thanks to its trailer, it is perfectly suited to be used as a travelling and mobile stage.

An image of rebirth for a country after a hard time like a war, it is a perfect symbol to show that art is still alive even in this historically hard time.

Known for its Italian design worldwide, it carries the cosiness and joy of its homeland.

Think Audience

This project concerns not only public places, in urban and rural areas, but also for places where social activities of the population take place:

• schools
• Kindergartens
• Libraries
• Parish Hall
• Residential care
• Nursing Home

Project objectives and social impact

• Taking theatre to unusual places.
• To create the opportunity to reach every spectator.
• To develop a certain sensitivity in the audience’s relationship to the performing arts and a curiosity even in those who do not normally go to the theatre.
• To give a new energy to public spaces, and give them new life and value.
• To provide a meaningful experience that creates joy in the audience, that creates a moment of emotional sharing, that helps participants to feel part of the same community.
• Through the artistic interventions, the audience can experience a different way of being with others and themselves, creating a space for expression and communication.
• To open the eyes of locals to the possibilities of social spaces through unexpected artistic moments that go beyond the daily routine of streets, squares, courtyards and parks.
• To change everyday spaces and give them new outlooks.

Theatre can be done anywhere as long as you find a place where it creates the conditions for theatre: there has to be someone who has found something to say and there has to be someone who has a need to listen to it. That’s how you can create relationships.

-Jacques Copeau-