There is a moment, entering the theater, in which the lights drop and a silence is falling full of waiting. It is there that the magic begins: the viewer is no longer just an observer, but becomes part of a total, multisensory experience, which involves him firsthand. This is the promise of 2025 divingscheduled from 9 to 21 Septembera new edition that transforms Milan into a widespread stage, a place of exploration, meeting and participation. Not a simple calendar of appointments, but a path capable of conducting those who take part in you in still unexplored territories, where art languages mix and transform into experience.
For its fourth edition, the Festival – produced by urban cultural sea and from Piccolo Teatro di Milano – It offers for the first time a program divided into two parallel paths. On the one hand, eight shows that will debut at the Grassi Theater, born from an immersive work in the neighborhoods or in dialogue with them; on the other, the city itself becomes a stage, with site-specific performance in the neighborhoods of Figino, Chiaravalle, Stadera and San Siro. It is a real trampoline of experimentation of contemporary dramaturgy, a project that moves between coexistence, proximity and open exchange to citizens, in which artists become catalysts of participatory processes and new forms of community.
The heart of this edition is called Milan survey. The artists inhabited the neighborhoods together with the people, collecting stories, desires and fragility that are transformed into scenic matters. Thus was born Housing First (Adriano), a job that faces the housing emergency through the simulation of a fictitious auction that becomes collective reflection. 96.99.92 (Bicocca) Bring the theme of sex work and new marginalities to the stage, starting from the story of Silvia Guerrieri and the experience of the Cabiria road unit. With Looking for Carla (Corvetto), Filippo Capobianco builds a theatrical poem that tells the life of a young woman on the margins of the city. Sound passages (Gallaratese) is instead A participatory installation that intertwines a path between the magical box of the baby and the streets of the neighborhood. And again, Gattara Milanese union He reveals a parallel city, made of cats and people, of mutual care and shared responsibilities.
The works born inside the neighborhoods are accompanied by the site-specific experiences. In Stadera it takes shape Détournementa map to get lost in roads and stories; to Chiaravalle, Suburbia Dream invites to a collective rite at sunset, between fields and paths that become a natural scene; At the Gallaratese he returns Sound passages, transforming the neighborhood into a resonance case of its hidden energies. Each neighborhood thus becomes a laboratory of coexistence and live stage, in which the theater leaves theaters and mixes with daily life.
The return to the theater does not lose, however, the participatory spirit. To fat debuts Who is the real Italian?of the Dutch collective Wunderbaum, built together with eleven inhabitants of San Siro: between irony and emotion, a condominium assembly turns into a mirror of our national identity. Auror Instead, it is a participatory dance laboratory that brings adults and children on stage, with their daily gestures high to shared poetry.
There is no shortage of extra moments that enrich the programming. The September 18thfrom 7pm, urban cultural sea will host a large party with the collective Out of focuswhich will present the new number of paper fanzine Tafferuglio San Sirowith the insert inside Investigation on an investigation. The evening will continue with live music, projections and DJ sets, confirming the festive and inclusive character of the event.
All this is made possible also thanks to the contribution of Municipality of Milanas part of the “Milan is alive in the 2025”, and of the Lombardy Region. So, it is not only a festival, but an experiment of active citizenship and theater as a shared experience. “Making theater a place of relationship, discovery and deep immersion in humanity”, reiterates the artistic direction, remembering that the ultimate meaning of this initiative is not the spectacularity in itself, but the possibility of generating real encounters.
The complete program, with dates, times and booking methods, is available on the official website: www.immesions-festival.it. On the portal there are also information on tickets – with facilitated formulas for those who want to participate in all appointments – and on collateral events. All updates are also available on the Festival’s social channels.
2025 diving It is not a festival to look at. It is a festival to live, all the way, together with the city.
