The initial inspiration is the Aeneid, which celebrates the birth of the Roman Empire from a population of refugees: Marco Baliani takes the myth as a starting point to examine the true sense of migration.
Then the encounter with Lella Costa and the memory of another myth, even more striking in its symbolic significance: Hero and Leander, the two lovers who lived on opposing banks of the river Hellespont. The theme of migration and the desire to tell of the “reversed odyssey” brought life to HUMAN. The black line that crosses the word evokes the presence of humans and at the same time their negation.
It is therefore an investigation, via theatrical forms, of what has been happening over the past few years in Europe, seen not only as a geographical entity, but also as a “Western” system of values and ideas: walls which are raised, fundamentalism which advances, terrorist attacks which stun the cities, refugees seeking refuge. This is no simple civil theatre, it is an unsettling, provocative and disturbing exploration of the decisive boundary which separates the humane from the inhumane in the form of an oratorio, in an attempt to set off a rite of participation on the true meaning of HUMANITY.