maggio '43 – BASE
Concluded
©Giuseppe Di Stefano
Davide Enia, accompanied by the music of Giulio Barocchieri, tells of 1943, a crucially important year for Palermo and its people, with the bombings that destroyed the city before the Allies landed, discovering that this dark period tragically resembles our present.
The strategic importance of the port of Palermo during the Second World War became tragically clear to its citizens in the spring of 1943, when the city began to suffer an increasing number of bombing runs by the Allies, who were preparing to land on the Sicilian coast on 9 July of the same year. Exactly two months earlier, Palermo had suffered the first carpet bombing in Italy. In less than twenty minutes, Anglo-American planes dropped 1570 bombs on the city. “The city of Palermo gutted and left lying in a mass of blood and rubble... the houses and even the roads are gone, and the dust and smoke make it practically impossible to see anything. In any case, the few things visible are unrecognisable”.
This work by Davide Enia draws inspiration from a series of interviews with people who experienced and miraculously survived this period. Taking his cue from their accounts and from fragments of memory, the dramatic narration deconstructs, reweaves and re-elaborates these accounts, bringing them together in a single story, that of Gioacchino, a twelve-year-old witness to this horror. The words of Enia, accompanied by the music of Giulio Barocchieri, tells of “dark times, in which people struggled to stay alive - writes Davide Enia -. They were horrific times, in which death came suddenly from above, or from the depths of the black markets, which throttled people with exorbitant prices. They were malignant and false times, cynical and deceitful. Not unlike present days”.
Duration: one hour and 40 minutes without interval
The strategic importance of the port of Palermo during the Second World War became tragically clear to its citizens in the spring of 1943, when the city began to suffer an increasing number of bombing runs by the Allies, who were preparing to land on the Sicilian coast on 9 July of the same year. Exactly two months earlier, Palermo had suffered the first carpet bombing in Italy. In less than twenty minutes, Anglo-American planes dropped 1570 bombs on the city. “The city of Palermo gutted and left lying in a mass of blood and rubble... the houses and even the roads are gone, and the dust and smoke make it practically impossible to see anything. In any case, the few things visible are unrecognisable”.
This work by Davide Enia draws inspiration from a series of interviews with people who experienced and miraculously survived this period. Taking his cue from their accounts and from fragments of memory, the dramatic narration deconstructs, reweaves and re-elaborates these accounts, bringing them together in a single story, that of Gioacchino, a twelve-year-old witness to this horror. The words of Enia, accompanied by the music of Giulio Barocchieri, tells of “dark times, in which people struggled to stay alive - writes Davide Enia -. They were horrific times, in which death came suddenly from above, or from the depths of the black markets, which throttled people with exorbitant prices. They were malignant and false times, cynical and deceitful. Not unlike present days”.
Duration: one hour and 40 minutes without interval
Credits
BASE – via Bergognone, 34 Milano
5 July 2020, 9.30 p.m.
maggio ‘43
by and with Davide Enia
live music Giulio Barocchieri
a Fondazione Sipario Toscana, Accademia Perduta/Romagna Teatri production
In collaboration with Fondazione Cariplo
The shows form part of the "Aria di Cultura" programme organised by the Municipality of Milan
Free admission, places subject to availability; reservations required for seat assignment at no. 02.42.411.889 open from Monday to Saturday from 9.45 a.m to 6.45 p.m., Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For purchases by telephone a valid email address must be provided, to which the electronic ticket will be sent.
Shows can be accessed by showing the ticket either printed or directly from a smartphone. In the event that tickets have been forgotten, spectators are advised that it will not be possible to print the ticket before entering..
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• In order to prevent queues and crowding, we invite spectators to arrive at the venue no earlier than 30 minutes before the beginning of the performance.
• Spectators with a body temperature equal to or higher than 37.5°C will not be allowed access to the performance, and will have the right to a refund for their ticket.
The personnel at the entrance will have dedicated thermal scanners for measuring temperature.
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• Spectators are invited to show their printed or digital ticket at the entrance.
In the event that tickets have been forgotten, spectators are advised that it will not be possible to print the ticket before entering on the evening of the performance.
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