as part of the Fabbrica Europa 2026 festival

With the final movement of the Frankenstein project, Motus extends the “mapping of horror” conceived by the young Mary Shelley, shifting the focus to the moment when the creature begins to perceive itself as irrevocably excluded from the apparent bliss of humanity – a humanity that rejects it solely for its non-conforming appearance.
Motus have called it a “performed film” – where narrative layers interweave kaleidoscopically, and everything stands in sharp, discordant relation to the present.
Captain Walton and his ghostly sister Margaret/Mary – Walton/Wollstonecraft – Seville/Shelley – do not inhabit the polar ice but an arid, apocalyptic planet, in the final days of our battered humanity: amid forest fires, echoes of genocidal wars, and lethal drones.

An extreme, dramatic, and feverish film set among the “eco-monsters” of Calabria and sun-blinded beaches. A central character in this work is also the sea – glimmering at dawn, darkening at dusk – swallowing and spitting out the exhausted bodies of the creature and Dr. Frankenstein in their desperate pursuit of one another.

A composition that further amplifies the nested, hall-of-mirrors structure Mary W. Shelley used to tell the story of the creature’s hate – and radical tenderness – a creature that “will continue to exist because it has never lived.”

Through the flames of the Promethean fire that burns across this second movement, the creature’s voice overlaps with other voices / testimonies / “confessions” from young people encountered during interviews for [ÒDIO], a film/documentary that won the Italian Council 2024.

Motus was founded in 1991 by Enrico Casagrande and Daniela Nicolò as an independent, nomadic theatre company. Their work intertwines artistic research with civic engagement, exploring liminal themes such as identity, gender, and posthumanism. Regularly presented at major international festivals, the company combines its artistic practice with an extensive educational and mentoring activity, and has received numerous awards, including four UBU Awards and the Critics’ Award.
In 2010, Enrico Casagrande served as Artistic Director of the 40th edition of Santarcangelo Festival. In 2020, Motus was invited once again to curate the festival’s special 50th-anniversary edition. Since 2023, the company has directed Supernova, a festival of contemporary performance in Rimini, while also launching Archivio Motus, a long-term digital archiving project that culminated in 2025 with the exhibition Future in the Past. In 2024, Motus was awarded the Italian Council grant for the project [ÒDIO]. In 2025, the company inaugurated Casa MOTUS, a cultural centre in the hills of San Giovanni in Marignano.

idea and direction by Daniela Nicolò & Enrico Casagrande
with Tomiwa Samson Segun Aina, Yuan Hu, Enrico Casagrande
on video Silvia Calderoni and Alexia Sarantopoulou
dramaturgy Daniela Nicolò
video shooting and editing for the stage Vladimir Bertozzi
soundscapes Demetrio Cecchitelli
a production by Motus in collaboration with Emilia Romagna Teatro ERT / National Theatre, Teatro Nazionale di Genova, Snaporazverein (CH), and Romaeuropa Festival artistic residencies hosted by AMAT & Comune di Fabriano, Sardegna Teatro, and IRA Institute
video contribution from the documentary film [ÒDIO], winner of the ITALIAN COUNCIL 2024

photo: Vladimir Bertozzi