BRAT

BRAT is a theatre company dedicated to production, artistic research, and cultural programming, founded in Porpetto, Friuli Venezia Giulia (Italy), in 2015. The company creates popular theatre that serves as a critical reflection of contemporary society, a cultural practice, and a means of celebrating the human experience. Its work is rooted in ritual and festivity, fostering dialogue and shared experiences with audiences while embracing artistic craftsmanship, where creativity and technical skill meet. Since its foundation in 2015, BRAT has produced a wide range of performances, spanning Commedia dell'Arte, puppet theatre, mask theatre, musical theatre, and street theatre, for both adult and young audiences. In 2026, BRAT directed “What The Hell”, an international collaboration between the Austrian-Slovenian company Teater Strik and the Indonesian company Sekat Studio. “UBU” premiered at the Festival Contemporaneo Futuro, organised by Teatri di Roma – Teatro Nazionale the 10th of april 2026. The company's production “Nunc” received the prestigious Premio Scenario Infanzia 2022 and has been presented at major international festivals including Pesta Boneka (Indonesia), Gioiosa et Amorosa (Treviso, Italy), Insolito Festival (Parma, Italy), Festival Trattini (Nuoro, Italy), IKF (Germany), Masq'Alors! (Canada), and the PAN Festival (Slovakia). “MALACARNE – The Ballad of Love and Power” is a Commedia dell'Arte performance weaving together history and legend, traditional masks and original characters, in a timeless tale about power, oppression, and the human longing for freedom. BRAT also designs and crafts original theatrical masks for its own productions and for other companies, including Teatro Stabile d'Abruzzo, Teatro Cristallo, Febo Teatro, Teatro della Granguardia, Pantakin da Venezia, and Teatro La Fenice, for which it also creates puppets and head masks. Since 2022, BRAT has organised Epicentrico, a multidisciplinary theatre festival taking place across four municipalities in Southern Friuli. The programme features performances by companies from across Italy for children and adults, in both indoor and outdoor venues, alongside workshops in primary schools. In 2025, BRAT curated Limitless, part of the GO! 2025 Nova Gorica–Gorizia European Capital of Culture programme. The project included a workshop led by Claudio Colombo for Italian artists and students from Ukrainian theatre academies, together with inclusive workshops and performances for visually impaired participants led by Ukrainian artists across the Province of Gorizia. In 2023 BRAT created Se.Me. – Sentieri della Memoria (Paths of Memory), an interdisciplinary project combining nature, ethnography, and performance, developed across several areas of Friuli, in partnership with theatre organisations, environmental associations, and social volunteering groups. Between 2020 and 2021, BRAT launched Fri.Co – Friuli in Commedia, which included the production of “MALACARNE” as well as a series of mask-making and mask performance workshops held in Italy and Romania. BRAT has also been a partner in regional projects focused on the performing arts, cultural heritage, and community wellbeing, presenting exhibitions of the company's masks, live demonstrations of mask-making techniques, practical workshops, and performances. BRAT leads workshops for professional performing artists, theatre students, and participants of all ages, exploring mask-making, the use of different types of theatrical masks, and physical theatre. In 2025, the company delivered a masterclass on the pre-expressive mask for students of the Department of Non-Verbal Theatre at HAMU – The Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, within the framework of the PAN Festival in Liptovský Mikuláš, Slovakia. Also in 2025, BRAT organised and led an intensive theatre laboratory on body, mask, and figure theatre in collaboration with UNIMA Ukraine, the Kyiv National Ivan Karpenko-Karyi University of Theatre, Cinema and Television, and the Kharkiv Ukrainian Drama Theatre. In 2024, the company led an intensive workshop on the pre-expressive mask during Pesta Boneka – International Puppet Theatre Biennale, hosted by Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia. In both 2023 and 2025, BRAT hosted Ukrainian artists Kateryna Lukanienko and Daria Ivanova, who led workshops exploring inclusive sensory performance for visually impaired audiences. In 2022, BRAT conducted two theatre workshops in Bucharest in partnership with Teatrul Podul and Breasla Actorilor, and hosted an expressive mask workshop led by Brazilian artist Fabio Cuelli. From 2016 to 2020, BRAT collaborated with the Scottish collective Secret Ministry through reciprocal artistic residencies, exchanges, and performances in both countries, with support from the Italian Cultural Institute in Edinburgh. During the same period, the company also collaborated with the Theatre Royal Dumfries, delivering Commedia dell'Arte workshops for students and theatre practitioners. With support from the Holywood Trust, BRAT presented its production BRAT: Harlequin and the Miser in Dumfries. BRAT manages its own creative space, where it hosts theatre workshops and intensive masterclasses with internationally renowned practitioners including V. Olshansky (Cirque du Soleil clown), A. Iurissevich, G. De Marchi, G. Bonanni, and M. M. Casarin. The rehearsal studio also welcomes theatre companies in artistic residence, supporting the development of new productions and fostering artistic exchange.