From September 4 to 8, 2024, Sotterraneo returned to Shanghai at the SDAC (Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre) as part of the Crossing the Sea project. After an initial visit in 2019, during which the company presented the show *Overload* and participated in a residency for the creation of *L’Angelo della Storia*—which was only completed in 2022 due to the pandemic—Sotterraneo returned to the ACT Festival with this latest project, thus bringing to fruition a collaboration that began five years ago.
Once again, the experience was exhilarating: the two performances of the show attracted a large and engaged audience, despite the festival having been paused for four years due to Covid. On both evenings, after the performance, there was a meeting between the company and the audience, who participated with great enthusiasm, asking questions about the creation process of the show, the actors’ training, and the linguistic barriers. After the discussion, many people stayed on to ask further specific questions about *L’Angelo della Storia*. The work is a mix of paradoxical historical anecdotes from various times and places around the world, and some spectators shared anecdotes related to Chinese history as suggestions for possible extensions of the show.
During their stay in Shanghai, the company also arranged several meetings with local artists, coordinated by the festival director Ophelia Huang. These meetings served as a genuine cultural exchange focused on the respective theatrical systems, working methods, the balance between experimentation and tradition, as well as an exchange of theater practices including training, improvisations, and physical and verbal exercises. At the same time, Ophelia discussed the theater scene in China, the challenges of bringing international works to her festival, and the complex task of building audience loyalty.
The presence in Shanghai also allowed for the development of relationships that could lead to future opportunities: with the Italian Cultural Institute (which, as in 2019, was involved in organizing the trip), interested in promoting Sotterraneo’s work in Shanghai and more broadly in China; with the Hong Kong Arts Festival, another partner of Crossing the Sea, whose programmer attended the show and is working on a potential date at their festival; and with the Jasmine Theatre in Shanghai, part of the SDAC circuit, which expressed strong interest in bringing *L’Angelo della Storia* back to the city with the collaboration of the ACT Festival.
In short, as in 2019, Sotterraneo concluded its Crossing the Sea experience by building a bridge to the future, allowing for the possibility of returning to China and beyond.
