AMARA SAPIENZA
Inspired by the work and life of Goliarda Sapienza
Tuesday, 14th May 2024 | 6:00 pm
Italian Institute of Culture in Edinburgh
AMARA SAPIENZA is a play dedicated to Sicilian author Goliarda Sapienza on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of her birth. The performance space, a 5-meter-long paper corridor, hosts two female performers. Whilst one embodies the author’s literary themes and interprets a multitude of characters from Sapienza’s life and works, the other transcribes her poem “A mia madre” (To My Mother), gradually reducing the space left available to the actor and leaving a tangible trace of what would otherwise be a purely ephemeral experience.
Goliarda Sapienza (1924-1996) was an author and actress from Catania. The daughter of anarchists, Goliarda Sapienza lived the twentieth century intensely without ever aligning herself with the culture of her time. Hers is a writing of experience (Trevisan 2016) in which reality and fiction are constantly remixed in the tangle of memory. The body plays a fundamental role: it is a means of knowledge, weapon and shelter while words serve to reconstruct lost identity in an ever-changing world. Childhood in Sicily, exile, theatrical and film career, fascism, psychoanalysis, imprisonment, homosexual love, oblivion given by the non-recognition of his works in life are pieces that fit into the discourse and, intermittently, appear as evoked bringing with them encounters, thoughts and sensations. Inhabiting contradiction, shamelessly declaring her thoughts and thus exercising the pure will to express herself and the right to write, makes Goliarda Sapienza a courageous example of a voice beyond language and market classifications.
Nouvelle Plague is an independent theatre company founded in Turin in 2017 by Giulia Bocciero and Davide Simonetti. Their style is a mélange of physical theatre, song theatre and prose, preferring the narration of omitted or forgotten stories. In Turin, Nouvelle Plague served as artistic director of the then Caffè Basaglia (home of Torino Fringe Festival 2019) and in the Marche region, where the company is now based, they collaborate with the Cesare Questa University Theatre Centre at the University of Urbino.
Dramaturgy and direction / Giulia Bocciero
Interpretation / Giulia Bocciero, Alice Camoriano
Technical assistance / Davide Simonetti, Andrea Amantini
Scenographic consulting / Maria Cristina Cecchini, Enrico Quinziato
Independent production Nouvelle Plague
Visual and narrative theatre
Recommended for ages 14 and up / Duration 50 minutes
Artistic residency at the Caravane d’Art in Chauny (Aisne, France)
The performance will be in Italian with English surtitles.
Reservation no longer available
