One of Italy's foremost performance artists, Dario D'Ambrosi, will present a festival of his brand of "Pathological Theatre" at La MaMa E.T.C. Dec. 29 Jan. 16. Along with solo performance offerings from the La MaMa regular will also be film and documentary showings. Among the festival's solo works will be 1980's Tutti Non Ci Sono (All Are Not Here), which shows the neglect of a psychiatric ward inmate by the outside world; 1994's Frustra-Azioni (Frustration), based on a true 1920s tale of butcher who thinks himself a male cow; and 1993's Prince of Madness about a crippled man selling human beings, who are revealed to be members of his own family.

The German documentary "Teatro E Follia" will be screened Jan. 10 with a symposium to follow. Reinhar Keller, the documentary filmaker, and Giovanni Sansone, president of Cavalla Bianco, an association for mental illness in Rome, will lead the discussion. Two films starring D'Ambrosi, "Volare" (To Fly) and "Cafe La MaMa," will also be shown during the festival weeks.

D'Ambrosi recently finished filming a higher-profile movie, "Titus Andronicus" for Julie Taymor. He is featured as the Clown. The 1994 recipient of Italy's Tony Award, the Instituto del Drama Italiano's lifetime achievement award, the former soccer play has performed his theatre, based on his studies of the mentally ill, across the U.S. and Europe.

Tickets are $15 and available by calling the La MaMa E.T.C. box office at (212) 475-7710. La MaMa E.T.C. is located at 74A East Fourth Street.

-- By Christine Ehren