Abstract: This article analyzes Pasolini’s polemic against the Teatro dell’Urlo o del Gesto in the Manifesto per un nuovo teatro. This form of theater aspires to a mystical and irrational contact with the origins of existence. As a consequence, it neglects the purpose that Pasolini attributes to his Teatro di Parola: the activation of a revolutionary/rational debate in the audience. Since Pasolini would resort to myth, the sacred, and the irrational in his tragedies, the controversy seems to harbor a contradiction. This article attempts to unravel this contradiction by comparing the Manifesto with other Pasolini’s writings, as well as with the influence of the Platonic dialogues. This article advances the hypothesis that the search for the origins and the irrational can be accepted in theater, provided that it passes through the Word (Parola) and aims at the ethical-political debate, for instance by showing the precariousness of existence and the limits of rationality itself.
Keywords: Action, Myth, Origins; Politics, Reason, Semiotics, Theatre.
