Salām/Shalom. Two fathers

from the novel Apeirogon by Colum McCann

Based on the novel Apeirogon by Colum McCann (Copyright © 2021, Colum McCann. All rights reserved), the extraordinary book that won the Terzani Prize 2022, the play is a necessary testimony to the horror of the war in Israel and Palestine. The author, Irish writer Colum McCann, has collected the shreds of a conflict seemingly without solution in the thousand and one fragments that make up the novel. Infinite are the sides of the polygon called apeirogon from which the book takes its title. As infinite are the points of view from which two fathers, the Israeli Rami and the Palestinian Bassam - real people, whom McCann met - try to understand a reality too complex to be observed, and judged, from a single side. Two fathers, brought to the stage by Massimo Somaglino and Alessandro Lussiana, who are united by the same unspeakable torment for the loss of their girls, each killed by the other's war; two fathers who had the courage to become men of peace, wielding their common grief as their only weapon: against the temptation of revenge and the trap of hatred.

Hugging each other, holding hands. Look into each other's eyes. Listening to each other, above all. Small, normal gestures, for normal times. For times of peace. Heroic gestures when times of war ravage and overwhelm the lives of men. Infinite is the number of sides of the polygon called apeirogon. Infinite are the gazes. As infinite and changeable are the things of the world, a place of chaos and risk. Within that chaos, two fathers: the same pain, the same strength. Words of hate can become words of peace. Let us try to put words into bodies. Let us try to really listen. Let us try. In the geometry of apeirogon every place is reachable, every point can be touched even if it seems impossible.

Running time: 70 minutes