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Futurism in theatre

            Futurism was an Italian movement which began in the early part of the twentieth century and included literature, painting, architecture, sculpture and performance amongst other forms of art, which focused on the energetic and violent aspects of changing twentieth century life.
             The ideas and philosophy of futurism can be found in the many manifestos written by the founder Marinetti and other prominent members of the group such as Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni and Enrico Prampolini. Indeed, before any of the philosophies of futurism reached there way to the stage, the page or the canvas, they could be found in these manifestos.
             Marinetti believed that it was time to create a new form of art for the people, based on the beauty of speed and the power and force of machinery. Futurism wanted to leave behind the old static art of the past and move forward into the future, reinvented as a technologically driven machine intent on the glorification of war.
             In order to transfer these ideas onto the stage, futurist playwrights wrote a number of short dramatic scenes known as sintesi. They were very brief and aimed to compress into few words and gestures the ideas of futurist thinking. In order to convey these ideas the futurist stage was one of "colourless electromechanical architecture, powerfully vitalised by chromatic emanations from a luminous source" , thus rejecting the old traditional staging techniques. The futurists wanted speed and mechanical technology on their stages and to do this they broke with all traditions and created some controversial theatre.
             Not only were the sintesi brief, but also some were just seconds long such as Francesco Canguillo's Detonation. Everything about this piece of theatre portrays the futurist belief of what theatre should represent, the rejection of traditional ideas and values. The speed of the scene is reflected, not only with the two words spoken but also in the gunshot at the end and one imagines the bullet ripping through the air and the silence just as futurists hope there ideas and philosophies will rip through the world and into people's lives.


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