Artaud, Parma and its Festival: A Case for the Study of Transnational Theatre Networks in the Second Half of the 20th Century

The article proposes a series of enquiries that have their origin in two studies, one completed and one in progress. Within the framework of the research conducted on the complex dimension in which the itinerary of the director Roger Planchon is to be inscribed, a plurality of methodological perspectives have been explored and used to investigate a plural trajectory, following the inscription of an individual and the groups to which he belonged in a multiplicity of contexts, generating rich historical and critical debates, not only in France. Without examining the full complexity of Planchon’s path in relation to ‘his theatres’, this text presents some methodological perspectives developed due to this research and, at present, revived from a new investigation into the Festival internazionale del teatro universitario (Fitu) in Parma. The purpose is to present some reflections of epistemological order, touching on the necessity and the strategies that can be deployed to study the networks of dynamic interrelation after 1945, starting from a concrete example related to the life of the Fitu. By asking many questions in this way, without any presumption of bringing a solution, an attempt will be made to reopen the debate on the possibilities of renewing studies on theatrical reception with particular reference to the European theatre space, that was being transformed in the 1950s and 1960s.