Geography: Europe > Southern Europe > Italy
Year: 2018
Produced by: Teatro di Roma–Teatro Nazionale, Teatro Biondo Palermo and Accademia Perduta/Romagna Teatri
Creative Team: Written and performed by Davide Enia; live music by Giulio Barocchieri
Synopsis: L’abisso developed from Davide Enia’s repeated visits to Lampedusa, where he interviewed residents and people involved in sea rescue. Through interviews and meetings concerned with the recovery of bodies after shipwrecks near Lampedusa, the production avoids reenacting migrant suffering directly. Instead the production uses music of ancient Sicilian fisherman, a cacophony of different languages and various theatrical styles to communicate the devastating accounts of shipwrecks. Lampedusa is an inhabited island whose residents have been required to respond to a European crisis concentrated at their shores. The “abyss” refers to the physical depth of the sea while also identifying the moral distance through which deaths at the border become normalised.
Source: Teatro di Roma, original production information: https://www.teatrodiroma.net/comunicazione/comunicati-stampa/labisso-2/ Piccolo Teatro di Milano, production listing and background: https://www.piccoloteatro.org/en/2021-2022/l-abisso Piuculture, interview with Davide Enia about the Lampedusa research: https://www.piuculture.it/2018/12/davide-enia-a-lampedusa-ho-scoperto-la-frontiera-del-mio-linguaggio/