 So welcome everybody to the Martin E. Siegel Theatre Center here at the Graduate Center CUNY. My name is Frank Hanschman, the director of the Siegel Center and this is a wonderful evening. Also a bit melancholic one. It's the last of our season. We had truly an outstanding one. We started with spray Luder. We had presentations from China, Argentina about choreography of African American choreographers and diaspora and many many others as you see in our brochure and it's always good to have a good beginning and a good ending of whatever you do even in theater. So sometimes you get away with stuff in between. You keep it a bit mysterious but this has to be good at tonight. I think it's one of the great evenings also of this season. We have again with us here our great Italian playwrights project. They also won a big award. Maybe Valeryard will say a little bit. She came here to New York on her own and had this idea to really re-establish communication, a bridge between two countries that are big theater countries but it had been a little bit as would say in the sailing there was no wind. The ship didn't advance and if at all the wind came from the wrong side and went backwards. There has been a lot of lots of exchanges. We have Jane House here, a translator who did a lot also in between their small festivals but on that scale really nothing and people in America thought perhaps there is nothing really happened after Pirandello. We all know it's not true. You might all be laughing but that's it. Often when I behave international guests they think nothing has happened after Tennessee Williams or other Miller because people don't know American writers also outside but a lot have happened has happened also here and is being shown and presented. So it's a big big honor for us again to be involved in this project. It's been very successful, very significant and someone in Italy told me you know it was La Mama that invited us all and had come and people come over. Now it's actually you guys. I don't think so. We have a small university where you know it was a tiny staff but still it has a real significance and one of the one of the manifestations is that we have a playwright with us here from Italy who flew in, arrived yesterday. Elisa, so baby, so we really really want to thank you for coming. She's part of the second edition and is part also of our publication which we celebrate tonight. We will see that more. This book just came out and we are very very proud of this. You're one of the very few academic publishing houses that do print plays from around the world even so nobody buys them. Once they're out there's a PDF online and everything is gone so it's no longer what you think it's significant. It's important that plays get printed that they are there but of course that they're also available and send around. We know that's the way how it is but we take pride in that and the Italian plays that we had here in this edition were very significant and had also I think big impact. The Lehman trilogy, the book Elisa was done here at first. You know we were really proud of that and many many many others. So tonight we will hear a reading of the play as a celebration also of our Italian playwright project. Again we were thrilled that we got that big recognition in Italy for the work and we really would also like to thank Kratziano for coming over. Again he was here once or two times before. He's a great worker of the theatre producer in Italy who started a theatre in Rome that was very very influential and now is a writer, a critic and also sits on Jewish panels. Also a filmmaker did a Pina Bausch documentary which we showed here a very interesting one of Pina Bausch in Italy so it's great to welcome. You came today or yesterday? Yesterday. And we came together so welcome and for taking the time. So Ride Trae where you're affiliated with is also a media partner of us so we think Ride Trae. But there's one partner we really need to say of course it's obvious and people always think you know who helps us and who does it and this and that. But the Italian Cultural Institute in New York really has very early on a very strong and significant support. We could not have done it without it. Giorgio Hanstraten was there in the very beginning and and then and now we have with us Paolo Balea Paolo Baclera did I say right? And who's here with us who is the the director and with him is Malina Manarino so thank you for both for coming and they also really have continued work and if they would have been earlier here they would have also supported us I think they really have been enthusiastic supporters we also had a reading which we produced together at the Italian Cultural Institute and I think it's an example how institutions can work together but they also really help us for support for printing for designing for paying translators and we really don't take it for granted because we work with a lot of cultural institutes but the Italian Cultural Institute really has made a significant contribution and one of the reasons that we have the books and that we have that support and that it became so successful is really also your contribution so I would like to say thank you but still also give back what you value back the word to Valeria who really came here with that idea and you all know New York and the New York City landscape to come from the outside and say I want to do readings I want to bring place over I want to bring translators to the work pay them it's close to the impossible it's work in the shadows it's often not paid and you need a vision but you also need tenacity and you're really of deep belief that is of significance and I think Valeria really had that national really would like to say thank you in the name of the Seago Theatre Center quite it's in the CUNY and also the city of New York and the American Theatre Landscape which has noticed that there are plays from Italy out there that are of significance and it's really because of you people think it's about institutions which in a way is true but still it's also about the people who make something happen so I really would like to say our respect and I give you know the microphone the last thing is if you have a cell phone take it out I'll do the same ringer of volume of sound of minus the Seago Center bridges academia and professional theater international and American theater and of course an event like this is right in the middle it shouldn't be longer than 80 minutes the reading is about 30 40 minutes and they will be followed by panel discussion and then we will have a discussion with you or for questions that will join us and and we will talk a little bit about the current situation in Italy so again really thank you for coming I know there were three emergency emails and phone calls and alerts not to go out tonight it's a terrible rain or snow I didn't fully see it but thank you really for coming a lot of people didn't come who said they would come because of it so again thank you for your help and Valeria I am the the worst person to speak in public so I love to be on the back backstage so I have passions thank you to Frank and Martin Seagal Theater Center this is a project and mostly a challenge a very big challenge we need to say dal basso we can say from the bottom because when this project starts starts from zero zero at all then we started to to a new dialogue dialogue with the institution and it is not easy to speak about the contemporary culture Italian contemporary culture we have a lot of culture to speak about in Italy so everybody's right in the right way focused in Leonardo Dante and everything is the best of our culture of course but we have also a situation now during this time that is very important to be well known outside either too so it's a good point to start a dialogue and I am here and my dialogue start to start here so the first person was a Frank to listen my my desire so my target and now after four years this little project that was started from zero is a little by little went in other cities in other countries so we went to London we went in Chicago we started a good dialogue with you pen and then NYU and then mulemba college that dedicate one semester to these project for the students and and so surprised about also a little bit confused but now we are closing the second edition so we translated the eight place with involving 10 authors many translators we had a lot of to learn during these four years and now we are a little bit more than zero a little bit but we have we have also a lot of friends and this is a very warm rock for us so this is what I say and I want to just present the actors now that they will have the reading for that they will read for us that event horizon by Cassidy translated by Adriana Rosetta that she is one of our translators she's not here today but she's here in the soul and directed be by Marco Calvani event horizon crew please come we will present the after the enduring the bonnet event horizon written by Elisa Cassidy translated by Adriana Rosetta an empty room a studio no windows on the left wall there's a small sink in the kitchenette on the right wall the entrance door no adorn no doorknob on the front wall there are many doors and cabinet doors and all shapes and colors they hang crooked or straight in a confusing installation of exits only one door is properly functional that's the bathroom door there's no furniture none the room will be furnished and modified throughout the play older paces around the room she rubs her eyes weeps she's very upset she tries to open the entry door but no success she goes into the bathroom comes out goes in comes out she keeps facing where I would like to know where and how how does this work it's really not possible it's incomprehensible how did I get stuck in here and why why this room is empty I know it I know this room Marco this isn't funny this this can't happen this these sorts of things can't happen this can't be sure this isn't a floor facing the walls of the doors you know once I read that you can understand if you're dreaming I think you have to look and watch twice or or in a row or read a sign twice in a row and the letters will be different the hands wouldn't move in because there's no time and space continuum in the world of dreams but here I have no watch and and not even a word to read and maybe I could try flying we're levitating if I succeed this dream we're not dreaming out okay okay I came in from there we'll go out from there Olga stands up and tries to open one of the strangest doors the biggest one it opens she climbs up towards it and crawls in she comes out of the bathroom door this work did you drive really have to guess which one is the right door Marco please help me starts count I need a counting run that's what I mean okay one two three four five once I caught a fish alive six seven eight nine ten then I let it go again why did you let him go because he pitched my fingers though which finger did he bite this little finger on the right she goes out one of the doors I changed the light bulb Olga what you go Olga comes back from the entrance door and when she sees Marco she runs towards him the entrance door slams behind God Marco there you are finally let the door slam listen Marco we're stuck okay we're stuck in this place and I'm doing to go around in circles in rooms that are infinitely the same as this one hey what's the matter what do you mean stop making up these crazy stories look I just changed the light bulb in the bathroom aren't you proud of me I don't know how to tell you what I'm about to tell you you're breaking up with me again look I know you're going through a rough time Olga but this is not the way trust me it's gonna get better but listen to me okay I'm stuck in this room we actually we are now stuck here and and there's no way out the entry door it's not working well of course it doesn't open the door knob fell off but I promise I'll fix it the knob is in the sink so you can just put it back on any time and the door will open look I I know this house is sad you don't have to remind me but I think it's great my grandmother left it to me it's my you know my home and yours it's our home what's wrong you don't understand okay and that's fair because what's happening to me is absurd I can't understand it by felt those doors on the wall are some sort of passage like any door I open brings me right back here to the same room no please sit down chair I know you hate the situation but things will work out and promise you will fix I'm Marco listen to me happy birthday to you happy birthday to you happy birthday dear old go happy birthday to you yeah go oldest parents with the cake top of the tin birthday candle they sing with Marco Julia sings the people voice and Franko snaps his finger to the beat this isn't exactly easy for a double digits you're a big girl now happy birthday congrats mother do you understand that this is impossible right I wanted to be possible but it's not you look how young my parents are what's impossible today is my birthday and clearly I am not 10 in the corner of the house oldest parents start arguing amongst themselves quite intensely yes you are and I want that cake is that chocolate I hope it's not fruit can't you see that we're grown-ups we're 30 years old and that's my mother I have breasts your arm has a parent just come on look you know what oh god I don't know if I want to be your boyfriend anymore you're so weird why do you sell these things and then you don't even have titties distinctively over touches her breast Marco pushes her and she falls all the don't hurt yourself we didn't know each other as kids do you remember what's happening what the hell is going on the other kids are playing dodgeball come on hurry up come on Marco goes out but over doesn't fall in she turns to look at her parents she starts off in their direction but they squeeze closer together okay don't freak out you're 30 years old your mother went away when you were young girl your dad is older than this this is a dream a nightmare something you have to focus you have to figure out how you ended up here what was I doing where was I what happened to this room what twisted itself what are these doors Julius slaps Franco and goes into the bathroom daddy Olga go play with the other kids we can't go on like this pretending like nothing is happening it's not good for Olga it's not good for anybody you need to understand what you want from life I know very well what I want from my no response from inside the bathroom overgoes to the kitchen at sink and lean on with both hands sees the doorknob and fix it up sees the door with the doorknob that Marco had fixed on the door before it's still there sure that dad are you okay open if you're here huh I'm good yeah you have to help me I I have a huge problem and I need to understand what's going on and maybe you're the only one that's not as bad as you think they're gonna move to another city gonna meet other people you'll go to college as I remember you're about to live one of the happiest times of your life not to say that the years here weren't amazing I am your mother you're gonna know well well don't be scared be excited doors I don't understand how but doors sweet don't be scared of anything don't throw yourself towards solutions don't save time let me give you some advice waste time waste as much time as you can don't don't try to find the shortest way towards what you think is right don't try to find linear solutions explore go up the beaten path you ask yourself there's something else you want I'm not saying to put yourself in danger don't leave all the time I remember that conversation there and you don't know who's after the first I did nothing but be first the whole life look where I am now graduated first I married first first one out of the kid first one it turned out to be a loan now just a couple days ago I was thinking that the greatest measure of time is the same wait dad I maybe if I say it in a crazier way you'll answer where does time flow we're in the water pipes in the tension cables in the cracks in between the hardwood floor if there a chance to catch it and stop it like being stuck in a hall with your whole life at your fingertips but you can't do anything about it and you don't know why if it's me who has to go why are you leaving would stop dad stop try trying to help me just give me a hand please what's what's happening to me over takes the cake sticks her finger in it and taste it then runs the spit into the sink the growth well it wasn't a nine-year-old cake after all Marco he's here you take you like it did you went in at the dodgeball competition no I they don't it but it's a perfect condition oh don't you think now this is where I'm scared look and I have to get out of the dumpster did you take it out of the dumpster yeah but now I'll clean it I can't fake this you don't remember it right don't remember what the second ago we were celebrating my 10th birthday with my parents you left to go play dodgeball and now you're back with a table you picked up from the dumpster okay if you don't like the table I can take it back there's no need to say those things and get so upset I think I'm in a space-time loop or if that's what you call it I'm using words that my dad I ever heard him saying like over the years and he was trying to teach me some very interesting things about physics you saying happy birthday to me and then you left and my mom went away and my dad gave me the speech he had prepared for when I went to college your mom your mother help me I can't get out of this don't be like that well that you're scaring me but right now you're a little out of your mind and I don't think I can stand much more madness you know I'm sorry you know I've never told you anything about that of course you told me I'm pretty sure I haven't but we've been together for seven years you must have found a moment to tell me all of these years actually we met two weeks ago listen I'm sorry I shouldn't have brought you this table I knew that it was gonna be too much too soon and if you really want to know I didn't buy the dumpster I bought it for you because you told me the desk your dad said we never arrived and you didn't want to ask him for more money to buy another one since he's really busy and the fact that the post office lost your desk would have heard him so I I just thought that this would be something nice to do you know I I like you all go really but I'm sorry you're right thank you so much I really love this back you can keep it I'm sorry but I have to go oldest starts eating the cake I didn't go this way at that time after he gave me the best he kissed me and he didn't leave oh my god oh what if I'm changing things what what if I'm shuffling things in my life what if I'm really traveling from time it means that I just created a parallel life in which Marco was adhering more and scared away I lost him I always hear him I always lose him I always hear everybody way but why do I even try Oka seems disgusted by the cake but keeps at it for a while eventually she gets up open one of the smallest cabinet doors and puts the cake in there goes back to the table and immediately goes back to the open the cabinet door cake is no longer there she opens him once again but nothing is there Julia appears from the bathroom door holding a phone in one hand and in the other long phone cable that starts from who knows where I'm sorry I stopped talking because I heard the door slam and I thought I'd go back that must be my imagination because no was here Mom what was I talking about right Franco is really sad that I can't get pregnant well of course I'm not happy about it believe me but I don't think it's a tragedy sooner or later it will happen of course it'll happen well neither one of us have any major medical problem so yeah so now he thinks that because I don't want to be a mother that I've been taking the pill behind his back and to be fair oh we said it wasn't my mom I'm here can you see me but you'll be able to have a donor eventually it don't worry oh yeah for sure you know Franklin don't you he's got his own way of seeing things the right time the right way the right measure you left before I had my first period and I didn't know how to talk about it when it happened I have watched all those movies with those awkward dads those bad things up so I decided to have to tell them and I asked my friends for pads or I buy them with my allowance and hide them in one day five months after my first period I stay in the couch very calmly walked over to the cabinet door and gave me these bags and bags and pads he was prepared and he gave me a beautiful speech I was only he knew how and as he talked I smiled and I thought but those movies really sucked and that I wouldn't miss you at all but I missed you a lot God I missed you you know I love you too I love you very much but we're too you married that woman and I married Frank maybe we shouldn't have this touch yeah we're back in town for Christmas and we're spending the holidays with my relatives we'd be there of course you'll be there but how can I help you ask me to meet you Julie goes back to the bathroom over covers her eyes with her hands spins around a couple of times she touches the wall she covers her eyes takes a deep breath and exit from the door she landed on she and Marco we enter from the main door he's the one covering her eyes now okay don't cheat I'm gonna uncover your eyes with my hands but then keep them closed okay you'll open your eyes and you'll see a place you know already with a wall that makes you a little easy actually all right let's just say it's a wall that you hate well right now you know exactly where you are but I'm not really good at surprises you know that but I've been able to keep this secret and not tell you anything all this time I know you hate secrets but you won't hate this one right no you can open that what you don't have anything to say but my house would be completely empty if it wasn't for your desk or the couch I bought you I don't understand let's sit on the couch let's sit and then calm down or like let's hang out what are you kidding I guess I'm starting to worry about how you're you know in relation to what happened but I have to tell you something important and I can't keep it to myself I got accepted to the PhD program in Paris you're kidding no we said we weren't gonna this wasn't gonna happen anymore I mean you know I have a girlfriend and now we're about to leave for Paris together Olga tends to open the door of the wall if the door doesn't open she persists and tries to open another one nothing she goes out the main door slanted shut and then she comes back and finds everything that she left what the hell are you doing Marco am I crazy yeah little no is this real how many years have we known each other why are we not together of course this is real yesterday we had lunch today we're here tomorrow we could do anything we've known each other for seven years although we we tried to be in a relationship but we couldn't make it happen we we tried all those years then I mean I guess at a certain point I met Carla and now you started to see this guy Alessio he's the first guy you told me about so it must be important you know those doors on the wall the doors who hate and tried to destroy so many times those are carless doors let's feel was one of your dad's assistance at the university you met him a few days after the funeral I knew that me moving to Paris was gonna crush you it's been six weeks since your dad's passing and I can't even imagine how lonely and desperate you must be feeling and maybe I'm very selfish to be asking you this but could you try to just be happy for me for once separately from all of your pain but I am happy for you Marco you see I don't remember my father passing away I saw him a few hours ago look I think that day that upon that day that he gave me the desk I had gone crazy maybe now we'd be together maybe maybe now things would be the way they are wouldn't be the way they are maybe maybe my dad would be dead this is all my fault this is a weird game that I'm stuck in this puzzle it's a nightmare I fell in love with you on that day because you seemed a little crazy you know what you mean to me no I don't know I'm at this point I don't I the only thing that I know is that I love you you're my whole life Marco you you're my best friend you're the one that takes care of me and the one I take care of in Paris internship internship because we were supposed to move there together okay I'm really starting to worry now you didn't give up that internship you're doing it now and you're not doing it well you're doing it with a thousand leaves of absence and with very little motivation and no desire to enter the real estate market and and I get it but it was your only opportunity at the time and you're underpaid yes and that's why I took your things here to tell you that since I'm leaving you can stay at my place you can live here so that you don't have to pay right he lost your memory maybe or were you in an accident did you fall let's see what happened I mean I assure you this is real I will never love anyone as much as I love you and you know what I had to give up on us and you did too you didn't want to be with me you broke up with me a million times we're not capable of being together you just take it down stay here you don't have a couch I hope you pull up the bed I have a thousand things to take care of before I leave I'll spend the night across this place Ogre and Marco pull out the bed and Ogre lays down on the bed and closes her eyes Marco turns off the lights and leaves one of the doors on the wall opens and Franco comes out for length he plugs it in and turns it on and starts talking to his daughter even though she's asleep I lost count of the things I couldn't tell you some of them I just didn't have the time to explain to you but others I told them about you wanted to hear them oh maybe you needed to hear them well I told your mother that I knew everything about the man she loved and that I wanted her to leave I thought that choosing would have helped me to maintain control instead of the moment she went away I understood I wouldn't be able to control anything anymore I prepared for some moments of your life and I prepared myself to go through them with you and everything went well you broke, you studied what you wanted you graduated and now you're ready to live with the strange and the strange world with all these grownups and I too have moved on and I learned how to do things that I became myself again I understood that if you built a wall around you people really believed in that we're not always worth fighting and then yesterday I was walking to the university it was in the courtyard with a young man wearing a graduation cap a man that still is that man I suppose the man I sent her to when I asked her to leave the man that won the love of your mother when I decided to lose it he must have rushed again of course he was waiting for it he laughed and laughed she was posing for a picture next to her son he looked for a second her second bottle in her hand and then she saw him Julia how you doing? standing collecting black jet and all that? what do you care I don't want to fight I just wanted to say hi I saw you and I thought that it was something that's great but don't ask me about it not a single day went by without me wanting to call her but then days went by and my life became something else what do you want me to tell you? there's nothing I can say to make you believe that I really care but son you have raised the son for all this time for all this time I thought I had basically forced you with the mother which I thought was what made our relationship explode mistake it has no cure so it wasn't like you didn't want to become a mother it's that Franco wouldn't be late for class I'd want to see all of that you're just saying that just like that just because you saw me you couldn't have called her for a long time you could have called me alright the home number is still the same don't be mean what me? I'm not mean let's be clear Julian Oger is my daughter not yours you know what's what always imagine a body an object a ball something extremely fancy with a gravitational force so strong that bluffing and escape not even light it wasn't it was always light for me a gravitational singularity she called the black hole inside of there everything that went in there that's never come back it's how black holes work they're like that there they're called black because the longer the speed the greater the speed of light so light ceases its energy and gets swallowed in and all that remains is darkness see at her end of all these years as she celebrated with her family while she created a memory with them as devastated me and I too fell in that black hole in my shoes at home and I tricked her and I fell Franco goes out the door of which he had entered and we hear a gunshot Ogo wakes up she goes to turn on the main light and opens one of the boxes and Marco brought the couch she takes out some books some papers and a sweater she takes an envelope holds it in her hand and brings it to her chest then she takes her phone and dials a number can I borrow you for a second? I wanted to apologize for yesterday I don't know what happened to me I was confused but now I see and remember everything Dad wrote me a letter telling himself and I called the university and asked to speak with someone who spent time with him and he gave me the number of this guy a lesbian assistant who told me a lot of things so I showed him a passage from the letter that my dad left me a passage I didn't understand something about black holes about space and time about the space-time continuum really and space and time together and I got distracted a number of times probably as a defense mechanism from all the darkness he gave me from the cliff from the gloom and he talked about another color then he talked about white holes and he said that sometimes something about symmetry and a hypothesis and theoretical objects but basically I understand it correctly white holes are the counterparts of black holes and with white holes everything can come out and nothing goes in and if they existed we could think of a one directional way a space-time tunnel that connects the extreme black to the extreme white of the universe and that allows traveling to time you enter a region of space and you come out from the other a black hole into a white hole and I understood over, over's the door finds Marco in front of the Haudenosaunee home he was here I was on my way here I'd like to add to the black hole that had digested me inside of him and my mother the white hole that spat me out far away from her I could travel through time but Paris with you but maybe you can come with me Marco and Olga exit to the door happy birthday to you happy birthday to you happy birthday dear Olga happy birthday to you Olga takes Marco's hand she leads him into another door on the wall Olga pushes Marco out from the door next to the one they entered he grabs the chair Olga goes out and enters from the entry door look, I changed the light bulb I just seem to buy the couch Marco looks at the couch wait a minute from one of the doors on the wall Franco comes in with a letter in his hands and so this is how it would be the moment has come for us to part ways sure that let's go please let me hear it again no, no Olga let's go it's too dangerous Marco drags Olga out from yet another door Franco goes into the bathroom when Olga and Marco come back in no one is home wait, it can't be this can't exist we're dreaming or maybe we dropped a pill in something we drank what? what should I know? what is this? when did it all start? is this what you do to yourself? is this what you do to me? is this what I feel for you? this scraping, this exhausting, maddening feeling I mean, is this the love you want? Marco, look, it wasn't me I'm not a witch doing and undoing things for my own entertainment flying around on a broom preparing magic potions what is all this then? I don't know oh, you don't know? no well, I know this is not the life that I want you can always go down but you can't always take me down with you it's not a matter of hanging over you're really crazy Marco kicks the couch and then goes out slamming the entrance door again Olga makes the bed phones it back into the couch he turns off the lamp and puts the chair in front of the wall of the doors one, two, three, four, five and five, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten and I let it go it's been five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten and I let it go it's been five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten well, the cell phone rings after it's searched, she answered it hello? she hangs up and keeps her eyes on the phone the phone rings again I hang up, you're calling again what point of life are you calling me from and why now? my dad died six weeks ago they say I don't think I want to see you no but unfortunately I can't always decide what I what to do and what not to do It was lately my life, faces and times are very confused. Olga hangs up and tries to open one of the doors from the wall. She can't. She tries another one, nothing. The phone starts to ring again, but she doesn't answer. She punches the doors, starts crying, faces around. She looks in the box again, takes out a bag of sunglasses, puts them on before going out from the entry door. She turns off the light. The phone stops ringing. While the scene is dark, the wall of the door is replaced with a similar wall, but without doors, except from the bathroom. There are many boxes and luggage in the scene now. I'm sorry, just give me a second. The door doesn't work right. Marco turns over the light and comes in with Julia. What was that? You're very sweet. Thank you so much for meeting me, for answering my call. Listen, to tell you the truth, I answered without knowing who's calling. Olga didn't have your phone number saved. When she disappeared, she left her phone here, and every day I hope she'd call. I answered every single call. Well, thank you for listening. Is this my daughter's home? No, this is not Olga's home. I took her stuff here, but she disappeared over three weeks ago, and she hasn't paid rent in a couple months, so you know what happened to her father, it got the state of it. I know, she only had him. That's the reason I thought that, now that it's gone, that maybe she could use my help. I'm sorry, I don't think that's how that works. Interchanging affections like that? I mean, you don't know the first thing about Olga. Well, tell me then, what's the first thing? No, I won't. Because of so many different and complex reasons involving Olga, her feelings and mine. I mean, the reason I agreed to see you and made you come here is to see if you had anything to tell me or would like Olga to know when she comes back. I saw Franco the day before he killed himself. He's always been a real professional when it came down to making me miserable. But I had to say that, killing himself? No, that takes the cake. There's nothing worse than that to make me feel horrible, and that's what he decided to do. Well, finally, I was able to find Olga's number. I had to lie here and there, and it took me a while to call her, but I don't have any bad intention. I just wanna help her. Look, I'm not insinuating that you have bad intentions. I'm just saying that, unfortunately, I can't decide for her. Are you a boyfriend? No, I'm not a boyfriend. Okay, let's do this. Tell her that I don't want to apologize. With her father, I didn't have a life I could call my own. I spoke with a voice that wasn't mine. I did things with a timing that wasn't mine, and in the end, it felt like I was forced into pretending every single day. Now, she was part of that whole setup. Truly, I would have never left if Franco hadn't found out, or that's what I like to think. The day he told me he knew it all, I felt free. I felt like I had an opportunity to start over, and I took it. Yeah, I'll tell him that. No, I want you to tell her that she's not alone, that she has a brother and a mother, and that she can stay with us whenever she wants, that I'll give her everything she needs. Yeah, okay. Yeah, okay. Why are you laughing? I wanna tell you something about your daughter. All that Olga has ever done in her life was cultivating solitude, not because her father was absent or because she didn't find people that loved her dearly, like me, but because of the moment you left and never looked back, Olga was convinced that everybody would always abandon her. And you know something? She's right. You went away, her dad killed herself, I'm seeing someone else, and I'm about to leave her parents. I can't deny 20 years of my life. I can't disown my family. I'd go crazy. I'm sad, of course, but I have no regrets. Just one last thing. Shouldn't we report that she's missing? Shouldn't they look for her? Marco's phone rings. Are you here? Perfect. Don't worry. I know Olga, she's okay. Marco opened the door and we see the top of a small wardrobe coming through the door. He pulls it in. Julia tries to help him. Thank you, it's very heavy and I wouldn't have been able to move it myself. I think it's better if I go. I'm gonna train you for a bit. Can I leave this letter here for you for Olga? Of course, you can put it on the table. Julia pulls out a letter from her bag, puts it on the table, and leaves. Marco opens one of the boxes and starts to hang Olga's clothes in the wardrobe. Olga's phone rings. Hi. Yeah, Alysio, now I'm doing all day though. I'm leaving tomorrow morning. No news on my side here. I remember if I told her that I was leaving, but I just had this idea that today was the day that she'd come back, but yeah, we'll see. Thanks, thanks you too. Yeah, good luck to you too. Marco closes the wardrobe doors. He crawls up to the couch and falls asleep. Olga comes in from the entry door, sees him, she looks around and starts to hang the things in the wardrobe. Marco wakes up. Olga. Hi. So great, you're okay. I'm so happy you came back. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you. No, you didn't wake me up. I don't really sleep. I haven't been able to sleep properly since you left. Do you know how much you've got me worried? I need a time. Well, mostly I just needed to stop using the word time. I know you don't know me any apologies, but I can't pretend I wasn't kind of saying it. Distressed by your absence. I mean, you don't need to take your phone with you. I didn't mean that. Alessio's called every day. Your mother called too. There's nothing between Alessio and me. Nor will there ever be. Thanks for my mother. Come on, why not? Actually, I think it's today already. This house with no windows always gets me very confused about the time it's there. It'd be really decreasing around the doors, too. Well, put it this way. Carla, one of the back. Things got a little complicated after you left. Sorry? I told her that I'd rather leave her parents by myself now, and she got really mad. She's much stronger than you when she's upset. I noticed that when she broke all the doors, that you weren't able to smash. Maybe I'm starting to like her, Carla. You sure? You know, I've read a lot of these days, and I learned something. At the threshold of a black hole, there is a surface limit, a surface, and a region of space is called, because a region of space tries continuum that separates the place where you can still see this phenomenon from the place where you can't anymore. It's called the vent horizon. And basically, it's the edge of the universe as a noise. So you have to stay in the horizon not to fall into the black hole? Really, like every other horizon, it cannot be reached. It gets farther, the more you get closer to it. Like the future. Well, we have time over. It's a piece of time. Time doesn't exist. Maybe it never has. What about us? We'll love each other without loving each other. Without being together. Without windows, without doors, without furniture. Asked about future. Love each other without anything. Okay, but promise me you won't fall into any black holes or white holes or yellow or cobalt blue or Sienna. And don't you go out the main door. Go through the wardrobe, you'll travel much better. Memories are just memories. Desires are just desiders. They're not real anymore. Or are they not real yet? Do you have a phone? Marco puts on his backpack, kisses her, and leaves. Olga sits on the couch. Julia and Franco comes out from the bathroom door and sit down with her. Marco comes in from the wardrobe door with a cake. There's just one slice left. He sits on the chair and eats it. Everyone looks straight ahead, except for Olga, who looks at them one by one. Then she smiles into play. I know this question and I hope you don't suffer too much from jet lag, most of you are with us, yeah? Okay. And we'll put some chairs up here. Let's sit down. Okay, we might need one more mic for Marco. So first of all, how did it feel hearing your New York reading? Excuse me, I speak Italian. I don't know which other language I use. You do? No. You mean that? Come on, read them all. She said, I don't speak so well Italian. No English, okay. Okay. It is always emotionally very turbulent of moving to hear your own work in a different language. Yeah, so it's always very moving to see, you know, how emotions get transferred in a different language and how actors react to it. Tell us a little bit the idea for the play. When did you have the idea for the idea for the play? I sat for a while by blackboards and I started to tell this story in many ways and at the start I thought it was literally a storytelling. At some point it became a graphic novel where a kid had a black hole in his shoes. But nothing was close to the history I wanted to tell so I also was far from theater because I was fair by theater. And then finally I had this vision about doors that became black holes and white holes and I totally understood that that was the way to tell my history by theater. At the end what I would express in my story was like a trip, emotional and... It's a time-space continuum inside the sentiments and suffering of this person. So black holes, you are interested in this scientific way or do you see as a sign what it represents? Are you scientifically engaged in your work? My background is scientific so I have... So it's like the stories I have to tell... Inhabit me, inhabit me, I feel like... Inhabit, you know... And it always happens that for my book... I read something, I study something and I find the window that opens to tell that story is always a scientific window. Everything I think and everything I want to describe in my history so also when I write a book in breaks, she writes books more than a playwright. More than plays. And something opens like a window in a scientific way. Thank you. So I would like to ask Marco. He talked about time, space, travel. There were some times when she wrote it and traveled over here. What did you, out of that black hole, how did you manage it? How does it feel for you, the energy, the horizon that you'll never touch? Did you feel you touched something in the play? Did it touch you? I don't have a scientific background at all. For me, the play was really about the pain of this woman who was abandoned twice by her mother and by her father in both dramatic ways. So it was about a person who really was suffering and she was dealing in a... in a linear way with her suffering. And so the story of a woman, actually between sickness and suffering I thought that the border was really thin. I thought that the black holes and the white holes was a great... sort of more of a vision than an image or to explain the trajectory of the character. I certainly connected very well and very much with the pain of the abandoned to reaching some degrees I feel that each one of us has dealt somehow in his own life. I can't explain black holes and white holes if that's what you're asking me. So do you... What was difficult? Was it something you felt it comes from Europe? These are messages from Italy? Was it something difficult where you felt like how do I do that best? Or did you feel it has kind of a universal? No, I certainly felt it was universal. There's a way of looking at things and translating them into stories that's certainly European. I can't even explain it. Probably it becomes a genre but that's also what you're interested in doing here at Martin Segal. But in terms of the theme, I totally think that's universal. And Elisa writes in a way that's so... if you allow me to say that... so unspecific that it becomes very much specific, very much universal. So the only Italian... I feel that the only Italian preference are really the names of the characters. The rest could be... and maybe Paris, that sounds so close to where they actually are. But you don't say anything about the CDs. You don't say even anything about the PhD or what they study. It's very open and universal and that's a gift. If you want to do it in New York, for example. Thank you. Cristiano, you have been part of the Italian theatre scene. You've formed it and you observe it now. You write about the word that's going to fit in into the Italian contemporary scene of playwriting, that dramaturgy italiana. I try to answer in English. Yeah, it's a little bit not... I don't think it's a typical writing. I don't know if you can see Elisa's writing because she came back from... She's a writer. She writes novel, basically. And this one was the first thing you wrote for theatre or the second one? The second one. And with this second shot she won the most important prize, Premio Riccione in 2015. And I was in the jury and I clearly remember we were talking about the play that convinced all of us we were ten in the jury. But we were discussing a lot because we were feeling something different. At the beginning we were scared because we said, okay, this is same fiction. It cannot work on the stage. This is the first impression. It cannot work as too fantasy because I was seeing, normally, it's very, very, very realistic or symbolic, but, you know, talking about language, not talking about the situation. So, at the beginning we were like with no orientation in exploring the play. But every one of us was convinced that it was the best we read at that point. So we started to look at the play in a different way and to understand that this scientific background is a kind of symbol. It's a kind of, you know, weapon she used to explain what is the suffering of the people that is totally a normal way to, you know, to feel about the story, to look at the story of the character. I mean, 90, 95% of people in Italy that work in theater even in literature has a humanistic background as Marco said. They don't know, everybody of us know, you know, very few things about science. So when you have a writer that knows something about science, you can feel it and you feel something different in what we like about the play. I think she connected with a strong tradition we have in Italy. We have a very strong writer that has a scientific background, Garda, first of all, but even Primo Levi that we, you know, the century of the birth of Primo Levi just this year and it is very important for us because, you know, it's our right that tell about Shoah that came back from Auschwitz and try not only the memory, but even the language to say that one. And I think that, you know, this writer that are so, you know, few guys in the panorama in the landscape of writing in Italy a scientific background, they do a special work with language. They are very, you know, we love to use words sometimes too much. This writer with a scientific background, they are specific. They find the word, they use the word and that's it. And that's why we give the award to this play. Did you see the Italian production? No, they didn't. They are still, they don't exist. Yeah. She has a problem with the first production that failed and now there's another production coming to, I think in 2020, you know? Yeah, maybe. Let's see. We got a little problem with the production but, you know, they start a new one with a very interesting female director. You have not a female word to say director now, yeah. Okay. Actually, Georgina Pisci worked a lot with English literature. Now she's working with K-Tempests and... Kerry Church, of course. She worked a lot with Kerry Church. And I think it's, you know, this point of view is interesting because in a way, I mean, it's a part of our, you know, landscape but in a way, she's different and I think this point of view, you know, from a director that worked a lot especially with English plays could be, could be a match. Yeah, thank you. I think also it's very innovative. It's precise but still very, very open and I think to draw the analogy to science, I mean, that will break out about the science of theory. I keep saying, theory is a science. You can study it has laws as scientific, as chemistry like a pre-molivary. We all think it might not be true. It might not be true. Will Eno famously said I hope it's not the same because if I have a scientist, they should have the very same exact measurements and results. It doesn't matter whether you're from China, from Germany or whatever. But if you're an artist, we want to know where you're from. How do you see the world? What is the different approach? And it should be different combination of both. And that's what it is. It's just a very beautiful, rare approach and I think it's a great credit to Italian writing. This kind of formal innovation of a poetic, sparse approach almost like the periodic table where you slide up things. But also for you, how do you see how work in Italian contemporary landscape you produce a lot in Italy? I want to thank the actor first of all. Because I want to really thank Elizondo, Risa, Robert Sorry. Let's have a big applause. And a long journey today. And of course Marco that is also a friend. But I want to thank him because it's not an easy thing. And of course it is a lot for us also to have their efforts. And this is my production vision also. I want to thank first of all everybody who works in the theater environment because without them my work doesn't mean nothing. And this is connected also with your question. How do I feel the Italian so I have to say that I live in New York six years now so I miss a lot. I miss in the sense of I don't see. And I left Italy while everything was very very fasting. And now I think something is almost changed. Also seeing for example the Ubu price a couple of days ago two days ago. Graffiano from the Ubu price from the radio came to New York in person I was shocked because it was presenting the Ubu price also seeing the China prices and the Istria prices. We have something that is moving in the background. So dramaturgy and research goes together. We have some interesting spots in directions look by far from here. So Georgina is one of them is very interesting for me to see how she is working on the international dramaturgy and with the actors that she has around the very professionals. So we have you know when something is changing in my position you can see a little bit in advance what happens in the future. So when I decided to leave I saw a gap in the future and there was a gap because we had for four years a big gap in Tia Prindini. Now after this gap I see something that is little by little going up. Graziano? Can you say a little bit about the contemporary scene of the last two or three years what's happening on Italian stages if you can say what do you detect what are changes from before? I agree with Valeria just asking if this changing has happened because some guys died and some places are free because you know we have a not strong tradition of renovating places like no no no Pecuglia guy but it was very good one. Now I mean people in charge in the public theaters sometimes they stay there for four years a little bit too much. Well I think that now we start to have a contemporary tradition of dramaturgy that we lost a little bit after the 80s because the last big writer in Italy was Eduardo from Napoli Tradition. He was connected with a Pecuglia kind of theater because his start came from a vernacular a vernacular theater from Napoli that it's a strong tradition and it came universal in a way but he died in 84 I think and that's all. After that we have for 30 years like two words you know the big the main production about Shakespeare and Ibsen and research theater and experimental theater it was just rejecting the new writers the dramaturgy so the writers doesn't know how to go. In the last 15 years I think there was a connection between the writers and the experimental theater that it's not more such experimental I think but this marriage start to to give some fruits some new born kind of artists and I think that it's a good tradition in the last 10 years especially of writers some of them of course you know because Fausto Paramidino, Lucia Calamaro are one of the most well known and we have a weak project about publishing theater and now one of the most important editor publishing house publishing house is to publish Lucia Calamaro of course Paramidino all this you know most known David Carnevali it's another guy, Stefano Massini of course and so we are searching for a different public 10 years ago this guy was known just for by the audience that goes to theater now there's another kind of audience for this kind of theater there's more you know coming from all the cities and ship I mean people that follow cinema or just people that so it is the story that ask you what kind of path you need to use and my choice theater was the path I choose to explain what happened inside the mind and the soul of a person it could be in appearance paradox because theater shows the external way of the life of a person and literature is mostly an introspective way and in my case I need these live people on the stage to represent what I live inside my mind wonderful I think it was we really did see real people and talking together but we also have a lot of voices I think from your mind or from the universe and black holes so maybe Michael if you can help us put some light up on the audience we take a couple of questions it was such an interesting good discussion we went a little bit almost close to time so whoever has a question maybe you let us know but maybe one of the actors if someone wants to say a few words of how it felt to speak a little research on black holes and much documentary one of the documentary on Netflix and I'm not scientific as you are but the stars that destroy I mean they they kind of end create black holes for what I understand so for me as an actor I connected with for instance people in our lives that pass away or they take actions and they do things such as that and they create I know my sister she lost my nephew to substance abuse and it's created something inside of her that is an emptiness but it doesn't go away the memories remain and then I was watching Stephen Hawking he was talking about the hairs the event horizon that although things get sucked into the black holes they still don't ever go away that they remain on the edges so it was just abstract and interesting that you know people in our lives especially Olga who left her mom left created this perhaps in my life prior to something happened as Franco but yeah I mean it's just interesting the whole theory of how you relate to that as an actor as a human for me it was really interesting to connect with her journey from the franticness of not knowing and not understanding what happened to her and we talked about her being in her head a lot and trying to comprehend feeling can be really challenging and then it was that journey until the resolve of at the end they're all still with her even though everyone has left her and it's like coming to terms with that but it was just a really powerful journey of that for for me and then to understand the connections with her parents as well as with Marco and how that shapes what she is and that relating that to the time-space continuum which is such a beautiful and poetic way of doing it I think so anybody has a question or comment can you give me the mic not only so we'll hear you but it's also live too how my question is most of the writers they write something from their life so these characters how much is from your life and how much is imagination in my life I have I write fiction so anything is outside my life but in the same time there is everything in the fiction that is part of my life so it's like a melting pot filter that report what I feel or I think the other people feels in my role of a writer I try to be a sponge to attract and read and maybe back while I write what I feel from the outside so as a usual happens to the writers you write and then after something happens so pre-biography and the fiction it's like to read in the future okay another question also comment so I'm going to mumble on here I think a little bit but my thought is first of all I loved the idea of the doors opening just I found it would be a very interesting play to direct and to try to hear out the doors and the movement of the furniture I think it's very theatrical and that's important and I loved what you did with just turning the just turning the music stands I thought that was very effective somehow or other I find there is you mentioned the word I was very involved with the translating of that and it's wonderful to see the writers using science and of course Chia goes to great depths about all kinds of psychology and many aspects of sort and I just really found it very interesting that you as a female writer were using the scientific images and I wish that we would see more of that in writing today wonderful thank you Jane do you could you see this on the stage on a New York stage could you see this directed on stage would New York audiences come can you take your mic I would see it more directly on stage than for a reading it was very hard it's full as it should be full of stage directions and all these doors many different kind of doors but to make it interesting and fluid for you tonight we had to make a selection and for us really the point was to go to the essence of the play to the essence of the characters to the theme to go straight to the core of the play and so I think it would be extremely fun as you just said to stage it totally I mean you will I think Robert because we just realized a bunch of hours today and he said this play is like a jazz session and it's true it's written sort of that way because it's sort of a dance but it's an unpredictable dance and as probably is in the space it's very unpredictable what happens there and so these doors and so the movement that coming back and forth in time and space yes I don't see that as I said before it's very universal and you can totally work here I guess thank you, maybe one more I would like to agree with Marco because while I was listening to it I was thinking how wonderful it would be on the stage because I also read a lot of science books even though I'm not a scientist but a writer and I wrote myself a play about not about personal things but about something else that has to deal with physics and I think that more I read about physics the more I feel that the analogy between feelings and unconscious and memory and time in the laws of physics are so the same as our own inner beings and our structure as people, as human beings I mean there is a complete allegory not even an allegory a similarity a similarity an analogy that is similar I don't know if you think that I feel that on the stage it would be great yeah when will it end really too we too so we are a little bit over time with reception here I think the Italian playwrights project did a little magic trick and brought a gigantic panettone and a little bit of scumante for us for thanking you for coming out because we have a friend that is Bindi that give us a panettone a real panettone so stay here all in days as a reward for fighting the big snowstorm come to an end maybe let us know what are you working on in a novel but also as a play if you want to share what are the projects you are working on right now ok first of all I wanted to say the last lady who spoke that even the other things I do are based on analogies, science and literature everything I wrote is yeah but the audience not I'm sorry me too I'm Italian so everything I wrote I write is connected between science I would like to ask to Elisa to tell to the audience the title of your opera I mean of your novel and of your plays because the title says everything my first book is a family hydraulic theory hydraulic hydraulic theory of the families the first book the second the botanical of the bubble and the second is the botanic of lyre the horizon of the wind is part of an ontological trilogy the event horizon is part of a trilogy ontological trilogy the first text is called the theory of the games the first plays the theory of the plays of the games inspired by John Nash inspired by John Nash the horizon of the events of the black holes and then the third is called the pole of inaccessibility the pole of inaccessibility the pole of the chicken the pole of the the pole of the the pole of the camera I'm glad we have real translators is a point a statistic point that is in the middle of the ocean of the ocean the most distant point of all the r-merces that is the farthest point of every from every land every land so if a ship goes past on this point it must be closer to the international space space shipper than to the land and this text is a text that talks about dark energy and dark matter so this play is about dark matter dark energy and dark matter because it talks about an astronomical geography an earth geography and an emotional geography and speaking about geography in a sense astronomical earth geography earth geography and sentimental I want to say just another thing very slowly, one about scientific background because at the beginning I say people with scientific background use language in a very specific way but it was interesting as you say that scientific background can be a starting point to talk about emotion it's more like this and it's happening when we have a tradition of writers with scientific background that they are all male and now in this last year the scientific writers are female because for example it's a novelist and I think something changing a little bit even from this point of view and it's just a female writers with background scientific background it's a kind of new thing in Italy as like in the Ubu award yesterday we have the second direct female director winning the prize for direction in 42 years I don't know what it's about time so I think this is another thing we have to say about the writing of Elisa Cas and this is not the Ferrante but it's a very nice thing, what's your next play what is your next theatre play you're working on do you have one you're thinking about another text what are you working on at the moment the time not because I just finished a work about the murder of Ciccio there's a very tough story of the crime in Italy I'm writing two new books and I'm also writing two new books and one TV show well I'm glad you had time to come to New York City that's amazing so thank you so much for coming thanks to Marco, the actors we will bring the books from the Italian playwright in the second edition for a special price $10 instead of $30 thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you do you want to see the photo of my palettone where is the title there is no title palettone let's take a photo ok good let me see that thank you thank you thank you thank you everybody thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you So everybody have a drink, have a piece of cake!