Synopsis

SHORT SYNOPSIS

We are prisoners of a reality of conventions, habits and self-imposed limits. Punzo’s experiment in theatre is rooted in the conviction that art can change this reality and change comes from self-knowledge. He works inside a jail with inmates where theatre is the method to foster this search for inner self. His Compagnia della Fortezza has evolved into a restorative, multifaceted experience that exceeds performance. Fear-inducing behavior commonly practiced inside prisons is quietly replaced by cultivating empathy and collaboration amongst inmates and guards. Punzo offers a model of what prison might become: a place of real transformation from the inside out. The One and The Many is an intimate portrait and artistic collaboration with Punzo, a production to disrupt our stereotypes of jail, punishment and redemption. We follow Punzo’s lifelong struggle inside a maximum security prison, his new endeavor at a criminal psychiatric institution and his quest to travel inmate actors abroad.