Winner of OIKOS Artistic Residencies for the Territory
Winner Open Call of the Regional Observatory for Legality Grant

Direction and Dramaturgy: Monica Ciarcelluti
Performers: Mariangela Celi, Olga Merlini, Anna Pieramico
Light Design: Fabrizio Pronio
Stage photography: Mazen Jannoun
Costumes: Annalisa  Teseo, Mariangela Celi

Production: Arterie Theater
Under the Patronage of the Regional Observatory for Legality
With support of Florian Metateatro

The play takes inspiration from the story of Paolina Giorgi – the stage name of Francesca Chiodi, an actress from L’Aquila who was murdered, a victim of femicide in 1911: born to a family of workers, she started ironing rich people’s shirts from a very young age to make a living. But she wanted more; she was too beautiful, too intelligent, “too much of everything,” and at 16 she decided to move – alone – to Rome, where she began working as a can-can dancer, singer, and actress in nightclubs. Everyone went wild. But this is not a fairy tale: Paolina died at 27, at the hands of a former fiancé who couldn’t accept the end of their relationship, it was too much. Paolina died because she said NO.

The languages used in the work are those of dance-theatre, of movement and performance, which contaminate one another, and the actresses move on stage like a Greek chorus; they are fragments of a game, of fragmentation and repetition, that only ends at the very end. Paolina chose to live, to love, and she defied conventions, hence the risk inherent in any game. The focus of the work concerns not only gender-based violence but, above all, a reflection on breaking down stereotypes and the loneliness that such breaking entails; it is an ancient story, of contemporary resistance, of courage and the search for freedom.

What is the fate of a woman, young, a mother missing, a worker, alone, in the eyes of the most immoral… either you bow to life or you react, and I wanted to live; I wanted to try the art of song. I packed my bags, I went to the big city, I could start again, and there I built my fortune.”

“I accept the grand adventure of being myself.”