AAARRG! ! - Capitano Catastrofo Collosalle

**AAARRGH! !** - **Capitano Catastrofo Collosalle**
**Opening 10/6-1997 and Reopening 6/6-1998**
Playwright and Director Capitano Catastrofo Collosalle, Löjlo, Dottore Zanni Pantalone Lejla, Tartaglia Costume Costume assistants Masks Props Music Photo Poster Production	Micke Klingvall Mikke Schirén Micaela Gustafsson Elias Wåhlund Anna Svensson Ulrika Ahlmyr Caroline Hoffman, Madeleine Kjällman, Andreas Marcus Micke Klingvall Oskar Cristiansen Ellen Pontara Jonas Fernvik Micke Jokobsson Sabina Kuutti, Sophie Hellsing
AAARRGH! ! - Capitano Catastrofo Collosalle is Kompani Komedi's second performance. It is a spectacular street performance in an early Commedia dell´Arte-style, with singing, music, acrobatics, fire, juggling, stilts and a very physical style of playing. The show is played on the platform of an VW pick up-truck.
	AAARRGH! ! - Capitano Catastrofo Collosalle was, from the beginning, planned to be Kompani Komedi's big international show. Already before the rehearsals, we were invited to play in Italy and we knew we wanted to play in Bosnia. So the idea to play the performance in grammelot (onomatopoetic make up-language) became a necessity.
AAARRGH! ! - Capitano Catastrofo Collosalle is totally international: it is all about broadly human phenomena, such as greed, assault and battery, snobbery, ridiculous and impossible love, robbery and boasting. The play, which is written by Micke Klingvall and the ensemble, is based on improvisations and a few simple canovacci. We have chosen an early form of Commedia dell´Arte, (more physical and less literary, but also closer to jesting and play with disciplines), but with a much more modern attitude. It is also the form most suitable for playing on the streets.
	To have AAARRGH! ! - Capitano Catastrofo Collosalle playing on the platform of a pickup truck was an old dream that Micke Klingvall had hoped to realize for a long time. It is about going back to the old time of Commedia dell´Arte, when the Commedia dell´Arte-companys had to travel, play, sleep and live togheter under reduced circumstances, when one had to play to survive, when life and art became one. It is not only because of the romantic flavor in the dream, but also to understand how those conditions relate to performances and style of playing.
AAARRGH! ! - Capitano Catastrofo Collosalle was rehearsed in Salong Katakomb, in the spring of 1997. As "commission for a consultant" we asked Nola Rae from England to help us , at an early stage. She helped us to get started with the work. During the rehearsal period we underwent acrobatic training at G.I.H. and music lessons with Ellen Pontara on a regular basis. Other disciplines such as stilt walking and juggling were also trained, as we searched for an early tradition of Commedia dell´Arte where jesting was a great part of the performances.
	We bought Mozart (our car) just before the summer so that the outdoor-rehearsals could begin. And 4/6-97 we opened the show for "friends and neighbors" in Henrikdalsringens big backyard, as a thanks for their allowing us to borrow their gym hall.
Finally Kompani Komedi was able to leave Stockholm and Sweden for the summer. The Company was traveling around in Europe for 3,5 months, and AAARRGH ! ! - Capitano Catastrofo Collosalle was played at about 50 times in Denmark, Germany, Austria, Italy, and Bosnia. The performances have been played in the most varied places, everything from theatres, festivals and culture houses to UN-bases and soccer-arenas. And for some reason we chose to do this the year Sweden had one of its finest summers ever, and the rest of Europe was raining.
	Kompani Komedi also attended a one-month workshop with Antonio Fava in Reggio Emilia, Italiy. Micke Klingvall joined the rest of the group a couple of times to lead a few longer workshops in Commedia dell´Arte in Vicenza and Caorle, Italy, and in Århus, Denmark, where we also had to rehearse for an indoor version of the performance at "Byens Åbne Scene".
When we got home to Stockholm ,in the end of September, we had our real Swedish premiere. We played the show at Salong Katakomb for two weeks. That's when we really hit big, after a very good rewiew in Dagens Nyheter ( the main paper in Sweden). Our answering machine broke down and we were overbooked! Unfortunatly, at the time we didn't have the possibilety of following up the succses, since the whole ensemble was ill after the summer. Instead we followed up by playing a new period in November, once again at Salong Katakomb.
	To the summer of 1998 it was time for AAARRGH ! ! 2 - Capitano Catastrofo Collosalle. That was a new version of the performance, changed after our experiences from the tour of 1997. It was rehearsed to be a "bigger" show, with the addition of more different disciplines, "audience-work" and music. We also acquired new costumes and props, and Mozart got a whole new stage design.
AAARRGH ! ! 2 - Capitano Catastrofo Collosalle opened 6/6-98, outside the Sofia Church on the south side in Stockholm. This performance was only out on a very little European tour. The thought was to have a nice and relaxed summer, with only a few gigs here and there. Well that didn't happen. Bookings rolled in and we had a massive tour in Sweden instead, wish ended with a big party-gig at the Ethnographic museum, that was very successful.
	At the moment AAARRGH ! ! 2 - Capitano Catastrofo Collosalle is played only in the outdoor-version, since Mozart, our VW-pick up, also has a part in the performance. But we play at festivals, opening ceremonys, the streets, parties, and anywhere one can put Mozart. We are also planning for a third version of the performance called AAARRGH ! ! 3 - Capitano Catastrofo Collosalle. See you in the summer!