I’m not a hero

Among the winning projects of PREMIO 2023, I’m not a hero explores the theme of heroism and its contemporary manifestations through physical theatre: an audience seated in a circle, two bodies pressing against one another, two stories that brush past each other, all of it drowning in a puddle of good intentions.

Starting from the premise that being a hero or heroine today consists of stepping out of one’s comfort zone to act in everyday situations where another person might need help, Kevin Blaser and Faustino Blanchut – the play’s authors and on-stage performers – explore the forces that work against this.

The title of the show refers to an excuse behind which one hides in order not to expose oneself, to avoid the risk of being vulnerable, and to justify one’s inability to break free, at times, from a passivity that allows one to remain in the comfort and warmth of anonymity.

“The project,” write Blaser and Blanchut, “arises from the need to explore the relationship between the heroic and the petty, between the ideal and the mundane. Where do we stand when the noblest choices already seem to plunge us into an endless whirlwind of difficulties? Is it worth trying to become the hero we would like to be, or is it perhaps better to leave it to someone else? Do we really want to be heroes? Does being a hero mean embodying the best version of ourselves, or is even that not enough?

In a society where every choice made by the average person either supports or combats the malevolent strategies of the dark side of the force, we cannot always untangle ourselves from the complexity of the world to guide our actions. I’m not a hero will attempt to poetically ‘sing’ of the great confusion that ensues.

Through humour, the lightness of acrobatic bodies and the tangible closeness of bodies in action, we aim to create a diversion that can explore the value of a heroic act. A tribute to good intentions that are not always enough, but which must not waver in the face of the challenges that inexorably present themselves to us.”