 arms either the one pasta and they'll give you as they are all thinking and together these Italian players who flew in just for this evening I want you all to know this and it was made possible by the Italian cultural institute that tonight we have with us Giorgio Fanstra, a writer and novelist who's the new head of the Italian culture and so thank you thank you for coming and also is in Fabio Torsi who also has come earlier to our event so I hope this is a continuation of the friendship but also beginning of a new chapter and a coordination and then the events we all are planning to do. This project is exceptional when we hear tonight it has all happened because Valeria who came from his producer, a real producer who produces very significant big stage productions in Italy came, took some time out to work here in New York to see what is possible, what could she do here that can really bridges between European theater and American theater and we are tremendously grateful for coming to us with the idea and her company, Humanism, is deeply involved with this. It's a cultural organization that is also trying to have a global dialogue and we have with us also Marco and Tomaso here who will fly to Rome tonight because he's translated what tomorrow he is his translator and so we have a quite an interesting lineup. The playwrights are significant, significant Italian playwrights, masters of their field, they all had won great awards, they were selected by selection committee of over 15 or 16 entries and we looked at what would really work good here like a homeopathic pill, what would be a play Americans could react to so we have a great presentation and it's a great great honor that you came here in person. There has been a little gap of perhaps 15-20 years of contemporary playwrights coming to New York seeing what is going on and so it is also a significant event in itself I think for American-Italian theater relations so it's a truly historic event I would say and also we have four directors with us and they will introduce the plays that are significant voices, new emerging voices in the future. There's also a real connection to the New York theater scene in New York actors who will show four exos so the structure of the evening will be a short introduction about the project in Italian theater by Valeria the producer and will be mastermind in a way also behind the project and we will have the readings and then a discussion with the writers and again in advance thanks to the directors maybe they can raise their arms so we see them where they are, here they are and so thank you and they will also introduce the plays and of course for the actors to give them their time and talent to be with us tonight and after 90 minutes it shouldn't be much much longer a little question we have a little reception at a bar close by that's called the Archive by this on 36 between 5th Avenue and Madison on the south side so I hope you might be able to come and join us if you have a cell phone since we're not coming to the serious part please do take it out and make sure the job and I hope you all do the same okay ringer off just say and again thank you all for coming on such a wonderful day I know how busy everybody is in the holiday season we need to put theater but we also need a good good audience and we have fantastic people so many may have to hide and so many many many others and it is abandoned others so thank you all for coming it really means the world for us and again let's give a big applause welcome to our playwrights who traveled from yesterday hi everybody I read because I don't want to make a lot of mistakes so sorry so when I met Frank for the first time I was just arrived in New York and I was starting how developed humanist project humanism is our company with the mausoleum, Spinaigia and Marco Calvani and when I decided to leave Italy to make a start out for contemporary Italian culture management theater was not my first thought also with my longer theater background teach me that performing arts and management is not at best a business at all also my experience in Italy was strictly connected with production of Italian contemporary dramaturgy and I was and I'm already I am convinced that a theater based on the use of Italian is not international at all our experience with France and other European countries comes after long work to make this connection possible so I saw that was a long long story before to build this from America and another problem to have Italian theater in our development was and is the terrible economic situation in which performing arts live in Italy professional companies have a lot of trouble to siliconize the work and many of us live in a paradox where you have to pay for to work no income just fees make performing arts and theater in particular completely dependent to the government this situation is not changed by the last year till now of course but when Frank Hansker made me to propose a work on a project about dramaturgy I saw the this was an occasion for me to to start another kind of management and to experiment the American way or to open a new bridge and network between Italy and USA but also to bring with me more than they hope that it was possible any kind of management to start a positive changing in Italy so I voted the best authors and the best hours of dramaturgy and they suggest us the last three years price plays and playwrights and we choose the four of the plays that we see today okay that's all I don't have more to say sorry of course I have to to thanks a lot of of help I had first of all from an italian cultural institute there was a really a very surprise for me to have as a as a supporter of our project of course martin sio theater center and last but not least the the media partner this is raya ragatre that these we are represented by graziano graziani that is a freelance journalist and also journalist that worked with the the broadcast that's all what I have to do now friend sorry but I stay behind behind the chance normally so I don't like to be on stage and and but I think right now we have to introduce the directors the first except from the first play we'll start with that one that's called will be off to spare you further worry by daria floriano and antonio tagliarini the play is an indictment of the austerity measures wrecking havoc in italy and the state-owned tax collection agency equitaria whose policies have caused extreme suffering and even financial ruin thus precipitating many suicides now in the play there are four actors tonight we are going to see only two actors because we do only except for the play and the actors are but yeah they're behind bennett and jane house it's 10 minutes technical problems we're considering not doing it it's not that we haven't worked on it indeed this is probably probably the problem we've gotten most inside the uh working steepest workings of the mind and uh we have not been able to find the core action and so and if we've come to realize anything at all during this time it's been the importance of saying no you can just say no there is power in refusal in saying no what's so great about making do they are the debt oh come on do it even if you're not ready no one will ever know is it won't matter but no no we do not want to be accommodating because we are dealing with an incomprehensible deed a powerful act one that is freely taken and moreover a deed that's to be enacted here a fabrication which quite incredibly resembles reality like the act of four greek pensioners who because of the economic crisis voluntarily take their own lives can we just make do with what we have no because this representation in all its complexity and simplicity should manifest itself like a giant rock crashing through the stealing of the theater and landing right here on the stage i know i i know i'm contradicting myself i know that i said we're not doing it but the temptation to fill something yes it's true saying no it's very difficult there's something perverse about this the inability to stick with no although they're known it's more about facing the world with extreme serenity and sensitivity they are facing a society on the brink of ruin and they're saying we'll be off to shame to spare you any further glory this is not legislation or the toy we'll be off to spare you any further worry we are four pensioners alone without children without a doll first they cut our pensions our only income then we needed a doctor to get prescriptions for our medications but the doctors were on strike when we were finally able to get our prescriptions the pharmacy informed us that they would not give us the medications because our national health service is in fact therefore we had to pay for our medicines out of our own reduced pensions so we realize that we are a burden to the state to the doctors to the farm and to the entire society and so no no it's the same difficulty we're telling you what we have no intention of telling you the thing that gets me is that when i'm home all these problems they don't bother me if i'm at home and someone asked me how are you doing it's not like i say no it's too much this is really too little i managed just fine we've been working on this stage representation of a book that has no dramatic action quite suddenly you're in this two room apartment on the outskirts of Athens where two old women are seated facing each other on two low back chairs with wooden arms looking as if they fell asleep watching tv when i watch tv i fall asleep after 10 minutes just like that and in fact a tv is on with the volume low one of those enormous tvs that look like an old computer then you go into the other room where there's a double bed with two more old women laid out indignified their eyes staring at the ceiling their slippers neatly in place in the side of the bed they're wearing their stockings their skirts are well-started everything in this house you know like when you put everything in order to make a good impression and on the table the one with the lace tablecloth there's the note the one explaining the reason why which ends with we'll be off to spare you any further worry with us gone you'll save money on our four pensions and you'll be better off and the most disarming thing about the value of these four identity cards neatly laid out on the table as if to say we don't want to cause you any bother the deed is done we make a decision together we all agree the only thing out of place is a half-empty bottle of vodka on the kitchen table in order to discourage any other speculations they say that taking sleeping pills with vodka is the surest way to die peacefully in your sleep the chaos is outside inside the house everything is peaceful simple simple no outside the rain is pounding Athens is in a shambles as soon as you open the front door of this two-room apartment right there on the stairs is the 40-something year old landlady she is furious just look at that will you will you look at that so now what is it my turn that woman hadn't paid me rent in for the last six months and i live off that rent am i supposed to commit suicide as well as to get money and the people standing in the pouring rain watch the bodies being carried out and see themselves in that i don't talk this way at home i'm not like this at home because something always happens at home someone always here here everything becomes immutable the only thing i regret we don't perform is that we've experienced beautiful moments in our work there was a moment when monica she's upstairs upstairs there almost in shadow she was sitting down wearing a dress with a pattern of faded flowers her hands together and she was biting her lip a little she instantly became one of those four women me too me too i found myself thinking about things that i've never talked about it was like discovering dust under the carpet i discovered that even inside me there's a point at which i too could put an end to things i can't take it anymore there's no point even in going on there is no point there is no point in taking responsibility that damn responsibility where you're always the one to solve the problem you always have to do it you're the one who has to pull herself together well can't take it anymore that's all there is to it such a feeling of freedom i finally understood my friend marco who was so serene when he was dying in the hospital i asked him marco how do you do it and he said well you know when you feel that life is unendurable when everything is beyond you then there was that moment when tomio was acting out one of the old ladies who'd taken the sleeping pills and brought her and anxiously said you want to be the last one to die because it's not like sleeping pills affect everyone at the same time so that everyone dies just like that tack all gone it depends on various factors i don't want to be the last to die then she looks at the old woman seated opposite her palmin valentino was acting out one of the other woman at katharina and said do i have to spend the rest of my day this curbing my love of life he said it was such old world dignity my economic problems are not my life my economic problems don't prevent me from loving my life from building a life but how are you going to build a life for yourself at your age every Wednesday evening to immigrants did you know that but what would be the point of acting it all out now in front of you do we have anyone to offer you no i don't agree some things could be acted out there were some things maybe not everything but some things could be shared i am so angry but with myself with myself i have never been so angry with myself before during the day i'm in control i always have been i go to bed i need to fall asleep exhausted and then around four four fifteen just like that i wake up all of a sudden with a start how did i not foresee all of this how did i get to this point without a margin of safety nothing and what will i do in ten years at 60 and 70 years old what will i do it's already too late now i'm faced with a struggle every day every day i have to struggle there's this girl who lives across the street i always used to make fun of her all the poor thing and how i envy her now i am envious of her material security she has built herself something indestructible and i who used to feel so so courageous so unborn merry where is all my courage gone now what happened to it encouraged to do what i'd like to be angry at something outside of myself because if i continue to be angry with myself with my own choices with the things i did not foresee i'll end up getting sick i know i know i'll be sick and there's something else we want them to abolish that state-owned tax collection agency from the north of italy that eco-ptalia i haven't paid any the fine on my leg payment of taxes what will they do to me when i was 30 years old i used to tell myself i'll do this for another three four years if all goes well good if not i'll make a change seven years have passed but it's not so clear if things are going well it's not so clear so you say okay fine let's go on for another couple of years let's wait until 40 but it's never clear it's never clear so you go on and in the meantime with downsize cuts but how much can you cut what is the limit at what point do you say anything more than this is impossible no i've had it that's it it's like the fear of not being able to grow up of not being able to stay in the world i wake up at night with a jolt i wake up and i'm afraid i start thinking about all the things that can happen to me the most awful things what if i get sick what do i do it's not so much about when you're sick you just lie there unaware of anything but afterwards when you're condolencing you can't take care of yourself you're still not well your life is going on outside and all around you i have this friend who says oh she is very sweet she says with that eternally optimistic voice of hers cheer up when we're old ladies with all the keep each other company we'll let each other her i'd rather shoot myself i prefer that i have always thought that i'd rather shoot myself i directed the next excerpt from the play of healer by michelle santerano translated by anna carnero um and i'm just going to read a bit that michelle wrote about this piece i would define myself as a living author rather than a contemporary one my works often deal with people strongly connected to the land they live on another key element is the south not conceived as a geographical place but as a social dimension everyone can belong to a self-inhabited by disadvantaged people who still claim their right to live the healer is a man who connects stories to people to cure them he is tired and old and drinks grappa healing is not an easy matter it takes need carelessness liberation and separation he is not a magician nor a doctor but merely an obscure compromise in the background the wall with three doors on the left door is written double on the right door single and on the central door private they are very dirty the healer is wearing a shirt with no jacket he is drinking a glass of liquor the color of the shirt is visibly dirty and he is very unkempt his brother comes in who is it who is it what do you think it is who should it be you must say when you arrive you must say aloud you must raise your voice when you arrive and also when you leave and when you stay and all that you must speak loud the bottle again or i will have to chain the front door how much i can drink is it of your business is it your business if i drink these are secrets personal affairs useful things to me you must raise your voice you must all right all right i understand i have to speak loud but now it's enough i understand okay what do you want me the one i understand i have to speak loud when you understand you always want something from me what do you want now i don't want anything nothing just leave that bottle keep cool once a while why don't you leave yourself alone let me leave yourself alone there comes the public the intellectual poet has arrived it's my business it's personal stuff i don't want to tell people personal stuff i must heal on my own because my intellectual brother doesn't want to put me in a nursing home if you want to start healing start with your eyes when have i healed the human body huh when this is for doctors and criminals i'm either of them you spread the damn word around have i ever put my hands on this one or that one no so what what is wrong with my eyes they don't see you can't see anything anymore you need to raise my voice when i come go and you're always breaking glasses and dishes and bumping into things you spend too much money because you don't heal the money is mine the eyes are mine it's all yours all mine all also you also you who i never really wanted also you're mine you and all the shit around it's all mine but you think you should begin to pass something along here they are the dirty words about inheritance you know you've taken all the inheritance yourself we were born out of the same mother weren't you done you did talk about that becoming healer on you haven't really become people are in public though you are saved because you don't know anything yep that's not true if i was the healer we would have power money let me be that if you want to be a healer for power then you should go to a contest to be the emperor of the two cislies if they do that but what time is it i don't know do you have an appointment but you don't know about it wasn't today look see move look i'll go get the calendar i cannot see i don't read the calendar i can't see anything on the calendar you must get it and read it to me i want to know who's coming and i want to know from you make an effort i'm not a clairvoyant how can you seal it heal someone when you don't even know who it is when it's necessary i know it it's uh it's a couple no more information she called she says they have a problem who has a problem she has a problem well how do you know i know well how would you know what are you clairvoyant no you are a clairvoyant a blind one very original i'm not a clairvoyant and i'm not blind i'm a healer and i don't see much very originally i don't care if it's original or not there's too much originality around if you're too original nobody comes and nothing to say but they say it with sirens voice sirens since the world is what it is live just from dawn to dusk those are butterflies and sirens butterflies and silence everything is simple true what is original dies simple truth maybe you understand that it's important to be simple to think simple not easy simple you know the difference between those two words i have explained it to you and i have understood it so well i see that you see who do we have you have already told me well what do they do i don't know age i don't know they'll be surprised uh what to us announce therefore useless painful i must say why because now we expect big things from these people that are coming and they come and we get disappointed about who they are and actually stay in the perfect delusion delusion of hope it's a reasonable mechanism if i was the healer i would say that it would be good enough to wipe out hope delusion would be wiped out too if you wipe out hope everything falls down the deep well hole but you just said just said that without hope you're dead who are you a man and a woman or a woman and a woman no there's a man there's a man what does he do i'm not the clairvoyant and i'm not blind close your eyes he works as a canon man it's not possible canon man don't exist anymore and what does she do they don't exist anymore the canon man all things that even most beautiful the canon man and we're not beautiful but they also imagine the secretary and he is a member of the town council he has an animal picture on his teeth see you are blind they're blind who is it the one that doesn't want to speak loud what do you want uh to heal what else she wants to heal but if that thing doesn't come if it doesn't what can i do for you in here for a week when does that thing come i do how the hell do i know well my blind clairvoyant knows everything two more people are coming that means nothing two more people are coming you just see people five hundred people could arrive but there's no guarantee that it's the right thing to heal that one how can i explain that to you you don't have to explain anything i know how it works you know how it works i know and why don't you become a healer then again you must poison me if i don't wake up you don't die will you die what happens to us you die should i go back to the room uh why are you still here the shirt i'm wearing how long have i been wearing that i have no clue a week and why don't you put the clean one on the bed what impression will i make with the dirty shirt go get me a clean one the doorbell rings who is it how can i know i'm not a blind clairvoyant well what should i do what should you do what the hell should you do open we're waiting for two people and the clean shirts let's do that next week open a weapon husband enter a company by the brother they are normal absolutely normal she is not fat they don't have way of the hair the husband is wearing a t-shirt because a good crocodile picture i don't know go ahead and make yourself comfortable beautiful you know what what's beautiful the healer doesn't see very well would you like to tell him what you have on your shirt maybe crocodile what are i telling him he doesn't want to take it off i tell him to take it off but he doesn't want to take it off the crocodile he doesn't want to take it off i tell him but he doesn't is it my turn i don't know should i say something about the crocodile as he wish then no i have nothing to say about the crocodile i like it i tell him to take off the shirt but he again he puts on a shirt and you think that i don't feel feeling well i am feeling very well i don't think you're feeling well i am well i just feel is it always my turn no i understand it's not your turn anymore and break you tell break i said you ladies you have more to say other than your husband must take off the shirt yes i i have i have something beautiful yes yes yes exactly yes then say it instead of saying yes yes yes yes good enough yes is it my turn and you want to speak i'd prefer not to of course he prefers not to of course he does he puts on a shirt and he thinks he's figured everything out he puts on a shirt violence let's proceed with order yes said enough with order so you two answer yes and no are you tricks of nature no has someone who hates me sent you here no are you here to bother me what do you want i he was a boxer welter weight champion twice in the finals in total it was very bad first time terrible second time got hurt boxer welter weight champion twice in the finals in total we heard that yes yes enough enough now so who didn't get hurt you said it find one who didn't get hurt and i that is life sooner or later people don't understand have we understood we didn't understand i meant that everybody gets hurt then needs help we are finally speaking the same language when people feel bad they come to me they dump on me their trash but do you think that's fair you need to see someone to heal a hurt that's not a momentary hurt because people get hurt and that hurt doesn't go away it it's something that clings to you like have we understood we didn't understand anything make it happen to be clear or we will stay on hold and get nothing out of it lady i'll speak otherwise you'll think we're crazy we yes yes he was a boxer we said that yes he earned a great deal of money this i between awards and sponsors 700,650 plus change 700,650 plus change and you complain i don't complain these guys make money and i have to heal them world's upside down he he earned a great deal of money he was good do you want to see me on guard i don't see well if you want i don't care about your guard let me 70,000 i can only show you my guard 60,000 no i can only show you my guard you're only another hole in the water not interested in the guard show it to the other actual i'm the director of the neighbors uh by falstow and we have a short little out to give you a sense of the play he is alone in his apartment he hears some footsteps coming from the landing trying not to make a sound he looks through a spinal he tells gretta when she comes home that he saw the neighbors and i'll tell seeing is not understanding but he is scared why who knows what about gretta no gretta is not afraid of the neighbors she can't wait to meet them but she's afraid of the old lady which old lady the old lady she sees at night the one who used to live in the building this play is about our fears real and imagined about ourselves and the other about neighbors near and far c4 the door opens very quietly he enters from the hallway he places a bottle of wine on the floor trying not to make any noise he looks into the hallway he shuts the door very slowly without tearing his eyes away from the hallway where the door is almost shut he slaps it and immediately looks through the keyhole gretta enters behind him very nuts i spoke to them today to the neighbors yes to her what's she like does she seem normal no one is normal and what did you say to each other hello hello you're our new neighbors we're the ones in front you're the new neighbors it's great here and it's great did you address her politely or casually politely nothing it's important to get along so everyone's you know so closed off today so frightened of everything it's important to be able to see others simply as and not go all the way indeed take out all the stuff i told her about the sugar the sugar about the old lady the old lady's sugar about the sugar and the coffee which now you take about i don't remember about how all the shops are closed and you made yourself some coffee and then you realized there was no more sugar so then you didn't know what to do you just stood around for that i don't remember it at all you plucked up your courage went out into the hallway and randomly fell no once and again and you heard her walking slowly reaching the door and leaving and she was watching you through the keyhole and you didn't see her but she saw you and you tried to look reassuring we only wanted some sugar and a bunch of time passed and you didn't hear any footsteps which meant that she was behind the door watching you and so then we came back home and i closed the door and just stood there listening you remember no i imagine you stood there listening and you heard the old lady turning in many locks to close the door securely because she was afraid she was afraid of everything of people and you drank your coffee without sugar and now you always drink it without sugar and you're afraid of people that is not true i'm afraid of people but i love you and i am i'm letting out wine did you talk to the supermarket people well i'm not a gossip and i am and i am but i love you anyway he picks it up remained standing for a second from the door staring at it she watches him he then moves and begins opening the bottle he pours two glasses the old lady was a real bitch scene five the doorbell rings the entrance from inside the apartment moves to the door folks through the peephole and opens the door up good morning you're not disturbing me uh the new neighbors i'm sure i make the equations of your life she told me a great deal who are you uh we are not married is that her yeah it's not yet compulsory thank god do you believe in god let's let's say i don't possess the sufficient facts out of to believe or not believe that there's one thing i cannot and don't wish to believe that if there were it there existed a perfect being because they say that he is perfect does it in spite of Auschwitz in spite of Hiroshima oh my god see i'm taking his name in vain again i am making a terrible first impression by bringing up Auschwitz and Hiroshima all right you you might both be jewish or japanese of course although just for looking at you now one wouldn't say japanese recognizing a jew is more difficult when we need to inspect the foreskin but in your mix so thank you it's sweet of you to laugh thank you for what my husband also tells me all the time he thinks i'm sweet when it happens no no i i didn't do that i'd better presume to do that i wasn't saying you are sweet i was using the word sweetening kind being kind so then on the other hand you are married you and your husband i mean are married my husband and i yes we are married and you thank god or not why thank god no i i'm very much in love that's what you said i did no no no i was saying that's not compulsory thank god that's what and then you wanted to say something about god but you didn't finish are you really interested i don't know forget it no no tell me about god that's what you're talking about isn't it yes of course uh i'm saying that if he is perfect despite everything i cannot believe that he'd be so thin skinned i understand that as a defect no are you thin skinned yes but i'm not god i'm not perfect and i am thin skinned and depraved and moreover with all my vices and flaws i don't demand that i be worshiped that my name be not taken in vain i wouldn't even strike anyone dead if they did see so we all deprave that yes i believe so and what's the opposite excuse me i didn't wish to be so intrusive oh well baby i'm the one who intruded into your home that's right uh did you want something salt sugar great i told you the whole story about the sugar i know what story concerning the forebird neighbor who didn't want to give me any sugar really incredible how people can sometimes be so suspicious yes really incredible but didn't she tell you about it i don't think so i may have forgotten coffee a glass of water no sugar then in the water uh no i mean i i cut you off but you you needed something no yes right she asked me to stop and say hello i would like to eat or something she's not here oh i see is she coming back it's strange that she told you to stop by today wasn't i don't know i don't remember i say so yes to stop by stop by maybe perhaps we have but take out swear that it was today i certainly understood that she meant today if not i definitely wouldn't turn up here like that no problem at all you're very fine but nevertheless it's very embarrassing for me if i hadn't been so sure she said today i hadn't been so sure that Greta would be here today and expecting me and i definitely would never have come to your home like this between myself and an embarrassing position from telling you to make an effort to find no effort at all really no you should do you think it would be appropriate for me to wait that is up to you no you may have things to do nothing important if Greta told you that but it's it's i wouldn't want to take you well then i'll go as you actually if you'd like to wait 10 minutes or so when do you think she'll be back oh i don't know normally she wouldn't be back but if she told you maybe that she could go to about she said it without thinking that could very well be but you know how Greta is yes yes and your husband he's a silent type the silent type at this time you make up for it i told you you're very outgoing and that's a good thing very good i'll go now some time passes scene six he and greta you made it back early today did you miss me i always miss you when you're not here and sometimes are you missing me now she was here today the neighbor league the only the new neighbor yes of course why did you say the old lady by mistake yes of course by mistake but why i don't know does there always have to be a reason why someone makes a mistake in a majority of cases yes you said the neighbor lady and right away the old lady came to my mind because she's always been our neighbor that's why she's been that for years but the word neighbor still lives on and it refers to her so right away that's all yes but i said she was here today the neighbor lady she was here the other day too the new neighborhood for the old lady when i dreamed about her i felt as if she were actually here you told me in the hallway i told you in the hallway yes you were in your underwear are you sure i said in the hallway absolutely sure i remember her being here here here yes she was here i see her right now i feel her but she was here i wasn't in my underwear well then she was here another time because the other night she was here she was here but i wasn't here she was alone you were here with her and you and she were there and you and the neighbor lady she was drinking some she was drinking a glass of water the new neighbor lady the old lady you directed her i don't remember when oh did she stop by the neighbor the new neighbor yes today she was looking for you she's very sociable like the opposite of you no on the contrary i made a big effort she was looking for you did you tell her i was coming home later she told me it was you who told her to stop by yes but that amazed me because you weren't here she was sure she thought she was sure that she told you that you told her to stop by however you weren't here you said nothing to me or do you love her she seems to be a pleasant person a little strange perhaps strange but strange about her i don't know strange in general you know but she was she was sure you told her to stop by do you think she took it back to me well it's difficult to say i told you that she's strange i never did understand perhaps it's best if i stop by their place maybe i'll invite them to suffer or to have a drink after supper are you afraid that we can seem too intrusive are you afraid no i'm not i'm not well then i'm going what about me should i stay here would you let him come to you no so stay here then i'll be right back yes yes she exits he stays put he waits and waits blackout scene seven the sound of doorbell doorbell waits him he looks at the time he gets up slowly and goes to open the door it's kyan the name of the name good evening good evening we got by chance how many salt did you come out did gretta send you to ask me for salt yeah see you hate lights up red antlers what time is it it's about time you've been away for hours i've been waiting up for you why didn't you join us i thought you'd come back i did come back but were you the neighbors of course i told you that what do you think i was you i i've been here waiting for you what did you do which had before a while we drank a few glasses we had some snacks the very pleasant evening why didn't you join us because i was waiting for you why didn't you come back to get me i don't know i i thought that if you wanted to join us you knew where we were and if you didn't if you preferred being alone you were alone charlotte asked after you i told her that you were here and it seems to me that she came and knocked on the door did we hear her what does that mean it seems to me perhaps it was just more than i thought did she come no i believe that i slept oh is that i could have dozed off but i'm not sure do you think they want to do us harm do we harm something there's nothing about them suggest that i invited them to have a drink with us here later later when later whatever they want are they coming they said yes those of them yes not waiting to also meet charles carter he's very sociable where is he i don't know if they're married they are there he's sociable that's fine just fine so we're expecting them then what are they coming the time it takes to get ready i think they need to get ready to cross the hall yes i don't think they need to just go out just like that just like what just like that just like they weren't at home that is not dressed sorry they were naked no no of course they were not naked not dressed not dressed to go out so sorry but in what way what is he sociable does he dance or do he have naked minds what's going into me i have a partner who doesn't show up after inviting a sort of new girlfriend into our home then she says she'll be out for a second to make her excuses and she comes back two hours later after spending time with a couple of half-naked religious strangers who are sociable but who don't talk are you jealous of your neighbors are you jealous of the fact that i'm trying to be sociable without new neighbors oh listen to that she's sociable now too of what does this sociability consist of does that have anything to do with the fact that they were happening in what way is the man sociable i don't know it's a feeling i don't i don't know how to explain it exactly see that you're medicine you don't want to tell me do you in what way is his life strange you told me that she's strange in what way that's what i asked you okay okay how were they dressed do you really want to know how they were dressed yes precisely in detail how she was dressed when you saw her no well no and you know why because you've never given a shit about how people are dressed that's why you never noticed and now you'd like to know precisely how our neighbors are dressed this evening why do you come with me if you're so suddenly interested in a condo dress that you know very well why ask that question because you honestly think that we indulged in a threesome when you weren't there is that what you think no i guess i don't understand you what don't you understand i don't know i don't know i hate the neighbors they're taking you away you're going completely mad but we've never quarreled like this before are we quarreling it doesn't seem to me that we're quarreling it seems to me that you are going crazy and i'm observing you somewhat unnerved to be honest do you think i'm going i think you're saying things that don't make sense and i think the same of you don't you see that did you tell her about the sugar about the old lady did you tell her the story about the old lady and the sugar yes or no yes it seems to me that i did the easy yes or no please concentrate did i tell you yes you told me yes well then yes i have no reason to lie to you no reason to lie no well then yes i told you yes it's yes but she told me no that's exactly right well yes more than you think i'm going crazy because in order to to not become unhinged i need to know what's true and what's false but if you're not careful about what you say or don't say how am i going to do that a little while you've given me too much this on the inside like the story about the sugar like our neighbor's dress code like the fact you say they're coming over and then they never come or vice versa shouldn't they be here by now how long do they need to make themselves gorgeous enough to cross the hall maybe they hurt you yelling and thought that perhaps it wasn't the right time maybe it isn't the right time but by the contrary it is the right time i think really the right time for us to sit down and have a drink together and try to understand all together what is true and what is false and if they told you that they're coming over i think it's good that they come over and if they don't come over i think it would be good to urge them to come over in order to avoid misunderstandings or or insubilities or things like that you want me to urge them on don't force me to nurture you more than what's normal for one person to nurture another my happiness depends on you are being happy but you can't blackmail me for that you're having this has to depend on mine too i cannot be a slave to your moods a slave you have to make an effort an effort for what an effort to be normal an effort to allow your brain to nurture nurture me and not only what your fear what you're afraid of i want to help you but but not as one helps a handicap person is as one helps one who loves to overcome your fear that i can't do it and i and i i feel alone because to help you overcome your fear that everything is normal that the world is normal that is more normal than it is too normal but it is not normal it is not normal as i as i claim it is and so and so i don't do justice to my own fear to my own anxiety and i risk going crazy myself so that you don't go crazy and then i don't succeed in saving you from going crazy and so then you can't help me and it doesn't even cross your mind that maybe i need help too yes i'm directing origin of the world interior conversation please can you hear me interior conversation please i'll play three acts by lucia calamaro translated by jane house sorry jane house um so this is a story of family dynamics uh some straightforward some strange and perverse uh it's an all-female black comedy in three acts the mother daria lives with her daughter fedorica among bulky modern appliances uh and godlike monumental figures over the course of the play they confront reality as they eat chat and get dressed sometimes other characters in the family constellation such as the analyst join them this womb of domestic life is staged in chapters that lead not towards an ending but towards an origin uh the play portrays the indifference rage and helplessness of those living with depression um then it is in three acts the first part is the melancholy lady at the refrigerator the second is certain Sundays in pajamas and the third is the analyst silence i wanted to tell you those names because i think they're all amazing act names um so we are what you're going to see tonight is uh the prologue and the first part of the first act melancholy lady at the refrigerator thank you seems to me that there exists a special breed of human being one that's different different from mine i mean a breed of lucky people and people who are together who can take the bull by the horns who are farsighted who can how to live in this world and see these and other similar expressions just reality to their own needs one must admit to their credit that they usually were always or almost always have been aware of what their needs are so breed that knows one that perhaps is not really learning but at least know in or know it all then there's us see the others almost everyone those who are confused indecisive melancholy apathetic lazy those who are alone the strange ones the timid ones that are just okay ones those who are diluted disillusioned the cynics the ideologically and metabolically drugs and then in addition those who always feel exhausted exhausted from the start and laugh and the word is festive so then we so then we what we know that that's precisely it what appealed to me i might something good something a bit sweet it's all the i don't know sort of bash i'm a janna joy and ketchup made me not properly closed this is moldy two pointless but i have to say keep refrigerated after opening usually gets moldy anyway with this it's still good so much that i was dressed it's still like there's kind of almost sweet taste of green space the northern part is more consistent with just a humid war it needs some bitter orange marmalade compost of eggplant and truffles for pasta what about this things in brandy ideal when combined with semi mature cheeses sounds like organic agri-tourism talking and it's not very good really although it was nothing that appeals to me at least it's sweet a camembert would be good with it oh no the digestive biscuit the last one no one to go that i have a baby tomato a little carrot black which is great it was this tasty good a problem i'm sure that little slice i can't get into or else but is that it like biapra in here box despite the tiny sauce that would satisfy my cravings oh strong taste how is it possible to shop for food every day and there's never anything it's not you oh look little chocolate from the duty-free shop that deli stewed baton with chocola puree i loaded the twist of four millions and mother of god it says it's a little chocolate with candles for anyway for me chocolate's not so however what i was i was an idiot it says it right there do you know what a corvette is what are you doing here oh you thought i was acting weird of course you're not invisible you know and where was that coat i was cold it's late do you know time off to bed now right now get up straight normal straight no nothing it's just that i was over there and i thought i'm coming over here more so that would be a bit more i feel a bit less what's mama doing this time of the night i thought come on you'll make a face i'll keep you company look i didn't want to be alone oh nidge it's not just because you're here now i can't just stop doing what i'm doing to dedicate myself to you no but i didn't even ask you for anything oh yes yes you all say that you all say that and but then the guest and the person who enters the room after you is by convention your guest oh especially it fits your daughter no it's so rushy and mean oh yes it's a sacred duty she needs care warm attention and i'm feeling really humiliated and so look it's the dead of night it's past my mother and i was i guess i'm on strike so you're really not on my mind right now how yours look a light mama look it's the fridge now it's night it's dark go over there to bed eyes wide open sheep ah you got all dressed up you look like that lady from that film the other night marmy i never know what to wear why do you say that am i usually badly dressed no not badly but you're all uncoordinated you're my clothes for the house comfy ones exactly but this is beautiful it's just the shoes they're a bit well their house shoes but they're ugly well they're like yours that's right but sorry who bought them who do you think boys think i do on sale but they're comfortable though exactly practical the home then you're all quack with a mushroom thingy look good the shin yarn it picks me up it's that if i don't do right here i feel dowdy do you know what guano means mama so what are we going to do you see that you want me to pay attention to you i'm hungry are you hungry no so then do your own thing on your own business because if i tell you to do something you won't do it and or you'll do something else a person should know how to keep busy in their own home not a door a place to live there's some strawberries in there somewhere for weeks i wander about the house with some difficulty slowed as if questioning its authenticity as if i were somewhere else anyway and not there as if the territory were unknown inhospitable anyway it's being closed in that gives me that feeling there's hostility in the air i move from my bed to the computer to the fridge to the computer i open it close it open it reopen it there's not much to eat i'm basically not it's not knowing what to do knowing what to do one place to another i think but not but not really not really a thought when i'm wandering about the house without trying to eat enough i never tried it i should do it more i should do it more of course but i don't consider them my job i don't consider them my job is one that i've never done modality i don't know i go back to the fridge nothing good but all the same it's something what's needed to something quick something a filling which gives the sensation of filling up but i'm not sure although i think you get over this rapidly because everything has this modality about it when i'm inside the house i realize it's difficult to get into my rest i realize that the food isn't getting to my breast so then what can fill one up in the meantime i chew time i do i don't know i go back to the computer if only there was some wonderful letter to answer but that's rare it takes a lot of effort for someone to write and tell you things all i receive is invitation after invitation after invitation after invitation after invitation go somewhere and see someone doing something which basically doesn't interest me at all i go back to the fridge i open i look in i leave it open i look more carefully i think maybe i'll make myself another coffee it doesn't matter coffee it doesn't matter what's on the coffee machine i go back to the fridge i never know whether i miss something or something that would give me some pleasure i stare at the food that's in there the eggs yogurts candy bars the butter i adore i stay like the mesmerized spaced out jams and jellies there are so many all half empty plum black cherry most of the moldy i open the jars and sniff them and the hope that there'll be something or someone standing there something told me that my problem was hiding in there right inside there but i've never discovered what it is but i'm busy with my obsession with the fridge i never clean face to face with the problem i feel cold well maybe close it the coffee is ready i reopen it i take out the milk because i never drink it black at home it's almost all black i must remember to buy some more i want to remember to buy some more and toilet paper i arrange things big cup in a little plate hallway i go to bed i try to read savineo hopeful valeria aren't but almost right away i feel it sleepy it goes off it's sunny outside it's two or three in the afternoon i have nothing to do it's happened again i've gone back to square one i no longer exist i'll have to start all over again from the beginning are you asleep she's asleep we never talk i'm closing the fridge oh no nothing will be in the total darkness therefore watch that you don't get electric shock give me a cigarette the cigarette i can't find any all right but why are you lying on the floor next to the fridge it's the coolest spot in the house how about birds again please we talked about them yesterday already their reproduction migration foolish but do you know how they make their nests it blew me away sort of sad though they push with their bodies their breasts they crush the material to make it soft squash it from inside push with their breasts and circle around it's the breast that really gives the nest its circular shape what does he know of these things i know them i've read about them anyway it's by constantly circling and pushing the sides all around that manages to make a nice circular rim it's the female you know mama it's the female that circles around she's really strong so that's what you thought and what does the male do the male looks for things pieces of straw grass twigs he goes away and comes back and she circles around well poor little thing and it doesn't do her any harm no maybe a little maybe she gets a little tired but it's because it's difficult nature there's not a single piece of straw that exists in the rounded shape that's needed for the nest so the book says it's the female who pushes it says thousands upon thousands of times once twice and again then again and she circles around and pushes circles and then okay it says yeah then it says constant repeated thrusting of the breast what does that mean like this i think the pressing brings on palpitations at least the hyperventilation she ends up totally rattled mother of god with an effort the poor winged creatures make for such a wretched hideout well i sure didn't know all that do you know how peacocks make love no and please don't worry it's a terrible thing first of all the male puts his foot on the neck of the feeling no enough enough i said what's the matter now nothing now you're smoking yes so you feel satisfied yes so why are you making that face my thoughts so don't think a minute it'll go away what your sad face why should i now tell me why look at me yes i have a sad face i'm in my own home it's night time and i can have whatever look i want on my face what about you you have to understand that you don't always fade satisfied especially if they're alone with themselves i don't know if i'm outside of course it's best to be happy to see or quiet right i agree with that take care not to spill over into the personal but here inside have patience i don't like it i don't like it and sadness is okay you try to push it back but then you're you're surrendered to it sorrow can be triumphant for a while but it passes eventually and then remember talk but the matter not the matter that arises you know from suffering comes knowledge how long does the cigarette last yes and that's what my aunt grew up with used to say in her own way the more you suffer the more you know say that thing sorry what are you saying how long does the cigarette last i don't know how should i know i've never well let's test it out so you count out loud and i'll put it here and we'll wait and meanwhile i'll put my head in the freezer so we can see if the cold will do any good at least want to feel well like payment she makes me feel well let's go away at two seven four nine somewhere that's totally fine we still worry at all it's a good very good moment so we will have the all the uh playwrights be a director sorry maybe the directors come first important so um i'm taking um the time and enter talent and um maybe you just start with you and have you go down like tell us a bit uh it was an axiota of the play we only have the axiota translated at the moment even so we know a little bit the layout of the land of the plane will be translated hopefully this is part of this truly unique project next year was perhaps one or two translation workshops in italy and the big vision the idea is to be having two years of quiz maybe a festival where it was placed you know would be would be shown in repertoire and and so people will have a chance to see uh what's coming coming out of the out of Italy out of Europe i thought they were truly uh a highly uh interesting place well done each unique and even those short excerpts you could feel there's the sensitivity and subjectivity behind but also asking global big questions that there's some kind of connection but how was it for you how did you connect to this i hope you couldn't uh people that's in the type class that you directed the uh axiota was the um all the direction yes i understand uh suicide is a very serious problem especially among young people not only only people but here's a problem and i feel like expresses in this writing that uh older people uh cannot survive in certain comfort they will do away themselves as not to be a burden on society well uh uh this is uh very everybody uh reaches a certain age of course uh thinks about this not in this way everybody was to live longer of course um but uh myself i am especially um touched by this problem because uh three weeks ago uh a neighbor of mine committed suicide so uh i was quite close about this problem she was not an old lady she was a lady in her 60s and she had everything and that's not the the um material needs that always will lead to suicide in this case and in most cases this day is something lacking inside i don't want to play psychologist from what i see around me and what i see in society and what i see in the american society is that people who are not in need and material dire need some people is wrong with the people in general and they express their way suicide is in my view is violence directed on oneself we cannot do violence outside yourself the other the violence the self is the most the easiest way to i i think this is a this is a question that is always asked and i'm not the one to to find the answer of course not tonight thank you so much it does show that something seems to be broken some some change some agreement within society idly post a pre-world war two because we was a much poorer society as it is now and i don't think anybody in a system in village perhaps was worried whether they um we are too much of a burden something was essential part of this is not reason i come from a very poor little village of romania more poor than that village cannot become a real problem we never had a suicide in that village and we never thought about suicide because we are we were always busy where our next piece of bread will come from so there was no question of suicide in the big cities and look at this there was a suicide in our little village nobody thought about suicide yeah that that i think it really is a play that that makes us think and questions because i'm talking about food and about um having food and normally what to do or what with it um how was it for you to connect to this play and um sarah tell us a bit about your experience of that in the actual um i mean nothing to keep it i'm a depressing but that play um it was very you know i read the excerpt of course and i didn't have the whole synopsis when we first started working on it but reading that was very interesting because i had gotten that sense of her of the of the mother character's isolation and and so reading that in the synopsis you know one of the themes of that play was depression um and sort of this lack of ability to to connect and to sort of have a purpose which is sort of what we're talking about um uh a feeling a sense of a purpose in a society or in a relationship um but i mean i i find that with uh material even that has some darkness in it as that does um i am always sort of looking for humor and it was definitely there because the that whole um that whole bit about an astute here okay nice to meet you um just that bit about the you know where she's in the fridge just going through all the little things like we've all been there and just sort of feeling why can't i be satisfied you know this this thing isn't right and where do they even come from and who bought this stuff like i don't even remember buying it you know i just i i love that and i connected i connected so much with with the humor of that and how how human that was um even though she's this this woman that you know you don't totally understand what's going on um and and why she like her you don't you can't possibly understand her isolation but you there are these moments you can kind of connect in um i just that relationship with the daughter and the daughter trying to connect and it's not quite happening and i i just wish i could read the rest of it so hopefully we we will be able to do the little useful and uh tell me tell us a bit about uh your experience that happened that because it sounds like a play from another continent of world it's it's funny i mean but the name the name is the name of the house yes um i found it i'm spontaneous because i've had it in here this country's wrestling within some fear of the other in a very real way right now every other week we're being told by somebody that there's another that we have to fear so there's something really prescient and and of the now and that isn't that that is broader than just the idea i think of it's a global idea of the family and that really resonated with me and the thing i really liked about it was that it had its own sort of senior light touch it didn't take itself too too seriously but it but it told it dealt with serious issues in a very very light way um what's the subversive way in that regard which i really appreciated about it um and i really enjoyed the music economy that there's a really great wonderful sort of um drive to it a pace a tempo to it um that really that really appealed to me so on many fronts of the piece that really sat with me a great day um yeah i think of three plays uh were very playful i think it was language very masterful dialogue and having someone sense and also um um the uh the seriousness of the questions about families i think a lot about the human and the question about relationships about teenagers or young people um but um now let's come to um um um and um i know if i understand why it's also a story from a hero who in small villages do the business of healing that's what they do and there is a generation of conflict of course hanging through it that's a bit in our times or not how did that feel to you um i was initially struck by the uniqueness man that is the healer and is so so clearly and seemingly something's broken on the inside of him and his relationship with his brother this has such turmoil to it in the way he goes about his mother which is so explicitly not good um and then uh and how articulate he is about all of that um and how he has to spend his life healing other people and not dealing with his own feelings and then we need this husband and wife who are so inarticulate about what they need heal and that he was a boxer um which is such an incredibly violent profession um and he's hurt and he has that line um the hurt that doesn't go away and that's what he needs healed um and how neither of them can express what that thing is and it becomes about a shirt uh and her her anger that he won't take a shirt off this this shirt with a crop that i want it um which is seemingly such a microcosm of this larger idea that there's something broken in the relationship and helps i guess i responded to we all have this like we didn't heal um and that we go to these outside forces to do that for us instead of you know dealing with this right there um we would have to go on to the next number i'll play with so we'll fool all the way so i will apologize and throw you off still no no i one more one last thing do you feel that connects uh is there something you think what america audience will people what is your feeling about this maybe you will life has always connected this person so it's very interesting to see how other people see life and how other people see that uh it was very interesting this play that really found the ultimate ultimate gift to society and society not to bother them and to give the gift of life to the to the society is not to be bothered by them so in the sense it's a very interesting point of view and i was very interested in meeting this in this play it was very interesting for people to see that the european point of view about about that um yeah i mean i think that the the issues in in origin of the world are absolutely universal um i think as i said we've all been in that moment the refrigerator um and and just that just that seeking um searching for purpose and that trying to fill some interior void and not being sure how to do that i think that's um that's so so universal um and and i mean i think that she had uh yeah i mean it was for me it was so amazing to just sort of see that come through um through translation and through the through this other culture um that just feels so so connected to it the food in the refrigerator was like maybe a little fancier than i would have but um but that goes with our assumptions about it really i guess um but just just yeah absolutely a total universal story and and when i that i think it it's it's very important to share that and and recognize that how compassion for other humans recognizing that everyone is is looking for looking for that looking for some purpose well do you think audience would come up in like america this would be a festival of undoubtedly i think it's i think it's a player but now i think he speaks to what's going on in this country i mean europe in this country in the world at the moment there's there's this fear of the other one like beyond us and um yeah i think it's a it's a powerful piece and and and it and it lets us laugh at the the certainly a problem in so many ways so you know i i absolutely agree yeah well let's um yeah i would ask you to say you could choose four or five plays to direct and then do you think would you choose that play would you say a letter sure yeah i mean i think that there's uh i mean what i said before there's not a person in the world that doesn't you know need to be healed or want that in some way whether they can admit it or not in that browser if you need to be healed to help someone else or can you broke that where in all of you so um and i think perhaps in all the communities in in in the lanes or in asian community that this would also i think uh another resident or in california and europe feeling and the spiritual healing um and brush off is a different one but perhaps can relate to that and also the idea that these people that have money that are that are rich come to these poor people to be healed and to find to find wisdom which i think these class issues in our country right now are so so present well thank you so much and truly thank you so much and so to ask them the uh the writers to come and maybe uh one or two of the translators maybe um and also um to master the actually go to the airport i think so um maybe you sit here yes so um we are over time if you have to go somewhere really please do go but i think this is a really important space maybe a little light also on the audience so they're too much of the dark at graziano you are you are a theater critic you are someone who wrote i think in the book editions of belgium many uh introductions to these plays how does it feel to um hear those plays in the in english are they the same or the different um what was your impression it was a powerful impression i mean um i know all the yes so i mean i saw the um you know the show they they direct because uh all the all the artists are here they're also director not just writer and i think that um in a way they're different of course uh the atmosphere sometimes it's different uh because you can understand that the level down of acting for example it's uh it's another attempt at temperature you can say that and but at the same time the relationship between the characters are strictly the same and uh this is a discord to me because i really don't know except uh i think that uh write a very universal yes i mean like i say this morning is like a machine like a mechanism and the other the other authors i feel that writing really you know to me is universal but i i can read how they are connected with the with the plays they they grow as an artist for example you get some thermal that is not with us uh is really connected with uh with uh atmosphere of south Italy and we used to say that uh we have me and some other please we used to say that because sometimes like a link between the south of Italy and the the the back at place because there's this feeling of waiting but it's not like uh you know uh it's like a feeling you have really uh seen back at place it's something totally natural because you are uh in a land that is a little bit stuck importantly uh there's no possibility to go somewhere else or to change your situation so something deeply involved in the way of Santana right and uh it seems to me like something really deeply connected with the land you come from but uh when i look at the situation here it seems that there can be universal in a way so it was a little discord to me to understand how because we can we we can imagine that the relationship can work in a road but sometimes we are too involved in you know in reading the background here there's no background but the relationship is the same i think and uh in which i come out for example that it's okay quite quite an uh archaic relationship between mother and and and daughter anyway she if you if you know the way she writes you you can understand how is inside some neurosis of our of our time usually uh that i think is not totally comprehensive of our robot uh what i see here it was almost the same situation me etc it was uh okay uh besides past course another another show uh so i think that uh there's something totally different but the the the the scheme the the the you say the scheme the scheme yeah the scheme of the relationship uh it's really uh you know understandable without without uh knowing the context and you said that without and the footnotes and i think you made a good point and also want you to know that the writers really are also which are today right where they also directed their companies so something happened it's not just playwriting playwriting it is really um they are that new new new generation of um creators um um um for for the um theater um maybe uh we'll ask um how how was that seeing your i know you work a lot also in london you've been in the world quote also in the past but you know we have seen your place in english language on stage but uh how was it to um to to to hear about tonight and they said mind should be on um so tell us a bit about your impression what's next oh it was great it was great i uh i worked great with the director of the actors that decided to it was it was a twerk uh it uh uh it was a finally i had a final impression and uh watching um uh listening in uh in english because uh in the very beginning uh of the play and and this was the very beginning uh i was uh a little bit inspired uh in a very funny way by some aspect of uh horror painter's place where characters don't recognize what is evident where uh well i tried it to do with it to present the same thing that the horror painter does does it to the past you know in painter there is uh something that comes from joys where characters remember and uh probably remember they passed they will write uh they passed you know so they are the products of uh imaginary biographies that created uh in their mind and um when i started uh um writing the plays uh but that's uh something i i realize now that's what a cautious decision but when i started writing the play i i i tried to do to to present the same thing that uh painted the past in a far away of course uh it's obvious to forget the past is a little bit less obvious to forget the present but uh but i was a very much influenced as usual but in a in a conscious way but uh by the rhythm and uh by the the paper's text of uh in uh to tonight in listening to in english uh i had a very impressive but it they got back up to its original um much thank you thank you so much that was a wonderful translation by jane houses he was also acting in the from maybe you give a little leader until the 1900s and also a new work has come out right now about contemporary plays which is published with a quote co-translator so there are some things happening so um tell us a little bit about you i'll tell you about your um they are i know it's a little yeah tell us that whatever but let's say for me it was uh for the first time that one of the pieces of me and i had that we was out of us now it wasn't independent for us for for that reason i was a little bit emotional it moved my second time rigid you know and but it was a thanks for this possibility and because sometimes to jump out of your self of the self is very it's very good i would like to say things that and about emotion but yes that our play was not based at the central point is not about suicide we me and i we started to really to work on the question of the crisis what happened to people when you cross the crisis at a different level and there was a philosopher that is make a little book a philosophy very important for us that is about the possibility the strong to say no about something that you don't like now so political something and this was the base that we uh was the starting point then there was a moment when we we discovered the really the two three pages about the the the beginning of this novel about uh pettus marker is and he decided that this uh pettus marker it said to start with the image of a four woman women that side side side work just on this image because we thought that the writer that is why we say so we work just on this image because four women with old so it's a kind of writer and a dry situation that's just in such a manner because before women and old so what's the kind of writer really knows we enter in the stage the company and we um but just to about because i i can't understand that he was really touched about the suicide of friends and also we are all the time during the creation we cross some crisis because we enter in the stage and we say no we cannot do it so is a statement about say no no and then time by time we enter we enter we go in but during the creation there was a moment that um we opened the newspaper and there was three old people in the center of italy in a little village and commit suicide and so of course we stop a little bit we we cross this crisis because it's okay we are in the stage we are responsible so we cannot say okay we suicide because it's political act is this this part but also this the other part so just to say that uh now because i can understand that this result for you was really central is central but is something that we use about the is a double the possibility to say no in different way and also the fragile the vulnerable about that the only thing that life presents us with is the possibility to take it yes but you know nobody can say no you can say yes yeah that's right i seen those things in the plane i did not want to explain those because the plane experiences i wanted to talk about suicide in a larger context of course of course i can understand you and also you know it is of course an excerpt that plays much longer all the plays are much longer we see one part of it of course it was for that excerpt it was the right way to um to focus on and talking about excerpts of play uh lucia i um i think they type is that three hours long and your play so how does it feel to hear an excerpt of 15 minutes in another country with jet lag of a play that's only three hours long and you're the most literate you have the most words on stage so how how how what can be your mind it was very beautiful uh thank you very much thank you sarah and thank you i have the sensation of liberation because because differently than what quarziano has said in italy the show comes out as a show about generational problems issues well outside italy maybe and finally i hope the play that i really wanted to write a play about an existential crisis and not about mother and daughter issues this for me is very important because in italy nobody has understood grazie grazie america thank you um maybe in the lifestyle i have i next to being an actor on the play wife you also are a theater critic you write a lot for theater and about theater seeing this variety of plays um you know you also really tell me background but um um what what uh what uh do you see signals that that are significant also what i thought that i was only going to translate i didn't know sure like what did i think of the did i see italian signals in the latest do you see something what do you think of what you what you saw i thought it was terrific um well i mean i can't speak objectively because i was in one of the pieces which was such a delight to be um but no i mean i feel like the directors covered the story very well and as as have the playwrights that uh that while there are an abundance of particularities to the italian culture nation europe etc there's also a tremendous amount of universality in each of the plays that we've seen tonight um and i think that that's a testament to having curated such excellent artists tonight yeah and i also love the craft and the level of playwinding itself uh independently i think it's a truly a very very strong um i think presentation of italian contemporary theater which we have not at least we might have missed it but we have not heard or seen that so it is quite uh quite quite very very strong um i think um manifestation of contemporary italian theater as a final word maybe valeria you will be producer at the way of the event you also want to create the festival um so is this evening in the spirit what you think what you thought or something missing or um now after working out over a year and this was now the percent what what was for your it is the our start so uh i uh i am very happy that after a whole year or or at the work we are at this point uh respecting the deadline between it right because it's not simple and uh i feel uh this project is uh very important because uh is uh bringing something not all not only to the eventually american audience but to italian so it's very important for me that that point but is uh the starting we have to work a lot to grow up and uh now i hope we can translate the whole place and i hope that for the translation will be respected that my and your hope to have a residency with between authors and translators in italy maybe and uh and then this is our second step and now i look for work for the second step you know i walk step by step i i don't look a lot in advance but i am very very happy and i can't believe it that's so also i can believe that we have a lot of uh um of the supporters in italy because this is very important we have uh after the toast we have uh uh booties that is the center of dramaturgy in italy and uh we have uh cantile florida that is another theater and we have also a private uh private people that put some money to make it possible because uh uh antonio lucia and paulster are here because uh we strongly decide to have a then a guest so it was not simple it's like a little revolution but maybe i can't explain it now because uh we know that it is a little revolution but okay this is just the start well thank you so much thank you so much you should be so proud the question answered that we are only an hour over time so but let's go if you want to have the archive by again it's on 36 between finistan medicine in the middle of the street on the uh uh south side