May ‘43

Davide Enia

What is it like at night, when the alarm siren always screams for night bombings? I can't take eating black bread all the time, so I try to fish for eels. What is it like to crawl against walls to avoid being seen by the fascist militia? What is it like to search for Amuchina on the black market? What is it to need 1,800 lire for medicine and not know how to get them? What is it to witness the Palermo massacre on 9 May 1943, to walk into it, to see that there are no houses left, not even the streets, and to be unable to recognise anything amidst the dust and smoke?

The work draws inspiration from interviews with people who survived the events of May '43 and emerged unharmed. The dramaturgical elaboration begins with these narratives and fragments of memory, deconstructing and reworking these testimonies to weave them into a single story. Those were dark times, when ingenuity was necessary for survival. They were atrocious times, when death could fall unexpectedly from above or below, in the form of skyrocketing prices on black markets. They were cynical, deceitful and corrupt times. They resemble today.

With thanks to Accademia Perduta Romagna Teatri (first production 2003)