The metaphor of the cooperative application in the comedy
By Francesco Brandi and Federico Palombarini

The theatre show “Red, Black and Blue” presented on the occasion of the First Annual Event of the ICAR Project, could be defined an “informative comedy”. Through an ironic and funny metaphor it is possible to disclose the Key elements and the functioning of the cooperative application.

The three acts retrace the birth and development of the cooperative application in Europe.

The ICAR Project (Acronym of Interoperability and Network Cooperative Application among Regions, that in the theatre metaphor has been changed in Cooperative and Food Interoperability among Kingdoms) aims to enabling interoperability and network cooperative application among several Public Informative Administrations systems, in particular the regional ones.

The three acts retrace the most important steps that brought to the birth and evolution of the cooperative application model:

 1) the creation of a telematic infrastructure;

2) the definition of standards and technical specifications for the development of infrastructural services to apply in a Cooperative Application strategy;

3) the development of projects that aim to realize the experimentation of the Cooperative Application (ICAR Project)

The Comedy tells about the difficulties among three different countries to communicate and exchange different goods, produced in each one of the three countries.

The metaphor highlights the difficulties of the European regional governments in exchanging messages and services before the realization of a cooperative application model. The three countries, in fact, are able to realize a system enabling administrations to communicate in a federal model.

Italian Version

The Black country and the Red country are separated from a great river, the Dividend, difficult to cross because of its eddies and billows and so wide that the inhabitants of the two countries have never seen each other before. The princess of the Red country (Rossana) , walking next to the river, sees the prince of the Black country (Nereo), that tries to save his dog, missed among the waves during a hunting expedition.

The two young people fall in love at first sight, but they can’t meet because of the great distance and dangerousness of the river. It is Bertold, the servant of Nereo, to cross the river on behalf of the prince, to meet the princess and to start  the construction of a bridge (birth of telematic INFRASTRUCTURE). When the bridge was finished, the princes can meet each other and get married (EXCHANGE OF SERVICES). The princess decide to go to live in a third country, the Blue one, more isolated than the others and with a local and independent organization (LOCAL AUTONOMY). Nereo and Rossana, now become King and Queen with the name of Celestino and Azzurra, respecting the colour of their new country, decide to realize other two bridges to be connected to the other countries, realizing in this way a federate system with specialized markets in different kinds of food, but that from that moment could have been bought and eaten from all the inhabitants. In this way, the system of connecting Bridges was born. (SPC).Because of the different  measures, some trucks and coaches of a country were blocked in the bridges and under the doors of other countries; also the languages and coins were different. There was a lot of confusion, traffic was not well regulated, robberies and traffic jams gave many problems.

Bertold, wise servant, maybe if too rough, proposes to conform the measures, the language (XML) and the currency of the three countries. In this way, measures and rules are shared and applied in every country (STANDARD). The problem of the confusion persisted. There were too many people that moved from a country to another. Besides, the required quantity and quality of the goods was not guaranteed and the times of delivery were not always respected. Then Bertold convinces the regnants, during a G3, to create a system in which only the goods have to move, thanks to specialized servants with the carriages and the requests (E-GOV) for that task, without no more need to move the residents.  Everything is organized, managed and guaranteed by the Count Neruccio Prince of the Orange Country (CNIPA), who thanks to a register (SICA) kept in a public case marks which countries  are part of the agreement, the requests, the quantity and the quality of the available goods. From that moment a federate and organized system is born by standard shared rules, safe and very effective for the exchange of the services among the three different countries (INTEROPERABILITY). 

European version

The ESIIG2 Organizing Secretariat requested a specific adaptation of the “Red, Black and Blue”  script: the Lazio Region and LAit want to realize, in this way, an original and inedited edition of the show to offer to the Summit participants.  

Interoperability moves towards the public, in an interactive way, involving the public and providing tools and information that every participant can use in its own personal and professional life.

In the European reworking are introduced the concepts of SERVER PROVIDER and REQUESTER for the servants that ask and offer the goods; WDSL as standard language; UDDI both as data base and guarantor of exchange, quantity and quality of goods.

The characters speak several languages: English (Narrator, Prince Black-King Blue, Giselda), French (Princess Roxana-Queen Bluette) and grammelot (Bertold).

The grammelot is a recitative tool that assembles sounds, onomatopoeias, words and phonemes without meaning in a speech.  The actors used and use the grammelot to be understood, also articulating sentences that don’t really make sense in a foreign language, or to  parody some way of speaking or foreign characters. The result is a very expressive and hyperbolical performance.

The language acquires more and more musical expressiveness and is able to communicate emotions and suggestions.

The theatre like a metaphor

The theatre entertainment enclosed in an institutional event represents an added value both for the organizers and the participants: the Award and also the gratification, in this way, can last for a long time. The irony and the lightness used to develop also the most difficult themes, become an important mean to simplify messages and facilitate the understanding of phenomena.

The theatre peculiarity is, moreover, to create an empathetic level able to overcome the cognitive sphere, also activating the emotional part of the participants. In this way, in fact, it is possible to overcame the traditional resistances to change and encourage the participants to better elaborate all the dynamics concerning interpersonal relationships and to positively face the others.

The Workin’ Theater Company plans and realizes educational and entertainment events, joining to theatre and formative expertises, the enterprise’s dynamic knowledge.  The company is the result of a long experience of its members in the education and entertainment field that allowed them to collaborate with some important public and private enterprises in Italy.

Main Characters: