Beppe Severgnini in Life is a Journey
With Marta Isabella Rizi and the musician and singer Elisabetta Spada
Original music by Kiss & Drive
Directed by Francesco Brandi
Freely adapted from the books Life is a journey and Italians of tomorrow (by Beppe Severgnini, published by Rizzoli)
Not too many words are needed for leaving. Twenty are enough, like kilograms accepted for baggage on a plane (economy class). Two travellers, a mature man and a young woman, meet in a non-place: a small airport, where they remain stuck overnight following a flight cancellation. Neither knows anything about the other. At first they study each other, in a suspicious way. He fears being paternalistic, she being naive. He explains, she listens. She asks, he answers. Then the forced intimacy changes the relationship: the two discover that they have travelled a lot. They discuss arrivals, departures and luggage. Then they speak of talent and tenacity, timing and tenderness. They find that fear - in life, in work - is inevitable and perhaps that is right. They speak of brevity and precision, essential qualities in these crowded times. The importance of finding guides and reference points. The wisdom to find satisfaction in simple things. They talk about attitudes, behaviours, pitfalls to avoid and consolations at hand, about what to bring and what to leave and about what is abandoned, and instead, what we should bring back.
Time passes, the night passes. Until dawn comes, and the airport reopens. It is time to go their own separate ways, maybe differently from what they had imagined. One night changes many things, for people of all ages.
There is a third person on stage, another traveller at the airport: Elisabetta Spada, aka Kiss & Drive. The young woman, attentive and silent, will fill the wait with her guitar and songs. A musical punctuation for the amazing tale that takes place in front of her eyes, and those of the audience.
Marta Isabella Rizi is artistic co-director of the theatre company Flying Cloud. Trained at the East15 acting school of London, she performs both in Italy and England.
Organized by the European Commission - Representation in Italy