July 31, 2024 ![](https://grubbygibbon.com/edinburgh/images/Star.png)
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Londra Notizie
"CHOIN by Mattia Sedda: the clown, the buffoon, and the commediante."
In the first five minutes of his show CHOIN, Mattia Sedda performed, through magnificent body gestures, the piece that for us millennials represented the boundary between adolescence and adulthood: the theme song What’s My Destiny Dragon Ball. He sang it very poorly (and in Italian), exactly as you readers are singing it (mentally or out loud). "I know you know it."He did it in front of a diverse audience, half of whom, not being Italian, not eating Italian, not speaking Italian, and not living Italian, had no idea what was happening. Yet everyone was completely immersed in that hilarious gag. How is this possible?The Perfect Combination of the Medieval Buffoon and the Comic of ArtIt's possible because Mattia Sedda reincarnates, in a contemporary way, the perfect blend of the medieval buffoon and the comic of art: through his performances, which are absolutely not realistic but "real" and never predictable, Sedda the clown moves away from the text-centric and literary conception of theater to rediscover one linked to presence rather than representation. Nothing in Sedda's show, from the attention-seeking T-Rex to the fascist comrade who wants to conquer Leicester Square with strictly I-T-A-L-I-A-N pizza and mozzarella, seems scripted or premeditated, even though the most surreal gag seems believable. This is the key to Mattia Sedda's show, and in general, to the comic Mattia Sedda, along with the balanced mix of simplicity, rhythm, and precision.Being a Clown is a Very Serious ThingMattia's provocative and grotesque physicality alternates with gentle movements, imbued with a purity that provokes hilarity but also a certain nostalgia for childish behavior.As children, in fact, the maximum potential of our bodies reaches its peak, being free from control and inhibition. We are clumsily spontaneous, more "real than real," dragging reality by the hand and mixing it with our imagination, giving it no escape. As adults, this superpower is lost, not nurtured, abandoned. Mattia, on the other hand, has evidently taken care of it, training with great consistency. Being a clown, and knowing how to make people laugh, is a very serious thing. Because Mattia Sedda the buffoon makes us laugh from start to finish, but Mattia Sedda the man opens small cracks here and there, taking on the responsibility of making us think that being migrants, "fitting into" a rotten society, and no longer even recognizing ourselves in our gestures is not so "normal."Humility Outside the CharacterAfter the show, I went to talk to Mattia, and there was one thing that struck me: his humility outside the character. It was as if, after the performance, he slipped into the role of a good host, ensuring that everything proceeded smoothly. The same humility I found in the only line spoken by the female version of Monsieur Hulot, the actress Malin Sofia Kvist, who opened Mattia Sedda's act: "I am Swedish" – meaning – by observing my natural and unnatural gestures, my perfect musculature at the service of completely nonsensical actions, you must have wondered who I am and where I come from. Well, she is Swedish.An opening that functioned like a pre-film trailer in the cinema hall. You watch it with curiosity while waiting for the show you've carefully selected. CHOIN!Go see it at the Edinburgh Fringe 2024. Click Here For Review