Romeo Castellucci

Romeo Castellucci (born 1960) is an Italian theatre, film and opera director, as well as an author and set designer. He studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Bologna before founding the theatre company Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio in 1981 together with his sister Claudia Castellucci.

Inspired by the ‘nuovo teatro’ and the theories of Antonin Artaud and Roland Barthes, Castellucci shifts the focus of his work far away from language and the identity constructed through it. To this end, he usually dispenses with dialogue and creates intense visual, auditory and spatial concepts that place the human body at the centre of the experience. His works often draw on myths, classical texts, and religious and art-historical motifs.

In 2005 he was artistic director of the Venice Theatre Biennale and in 2008 artiste associé of the Festival d’Avignon. Alongside his artistic work, he has also published numerous texts on theatre theory.

Some of his most iconic works, including Sul concetto di volto nel Figlio di Dio (2013), Orfeo ed Euridice (2014) and Requiem (2022), have been featured at the Vienna Festival. With Credere alle Maschere, he is appearing at the Vienna Festival (Wiener Festwochen) for the 13th time.