Il disperato

An ordinary family is stuck in a house. Not a big house, ordinary. 

A family like so many, maybe not much money, just average. 

They all need space for themselves. 

How do you define that personal space? 

Where does our commonality end? 

Who are this ordinary family? 

And how can you save the other if you cannot even save yourself? 

  

A modern tragedy without an escape. 

  

In the past two years, many families have fallen into financial difficulties, familial tensions have escalated.  

The violence, the anger, and the social distance have increased.  

Do we still have hope? 

For Il disperato (The desperate), Wunderbaum explores how a person arrives at an act of desperation.  

The question begs itself: when do we call something a monstrous act?  

French playwright François Mauriac says: 

What is that, a monster? I try to describe figures in which the sublime and the repulsive, the lowest impulses and the highest goals, are inextricably linked. Those are my monsters. 

By

  • Marleen Scholten

Acting

  • Marleen Scholten
  • Alessandro Riceci
  • Ludovica Callerio
  • Elisabetta Bruni

Dramaturgy

  • Dafne Niglio

scenography

  • Maarten van Otterdijk

Costume design

  • Rosa Mariotti

Photography

  • C. Trimboli
  • Luca Chiaudano

Producer

  • Wunderbaum
  • Associazione TRAK
  • Theater Rotterdam

Special thanks to

  • RomaEuropa
  • Zona K
  • Arti e Spettacolo
  • Tiziana Colla
  • Paolo Aniello
  • Paolo Giulini (criminoloog)
  • Roberto Bezzi (verantwoordelijke afdeling educatie huis van Bewaring Milaan)

With the support of

  • IntercettAzioni - Centro di Residenza Artistica della Lombardia
  • Residenza Spazio Nobelperlapace / Arti e Spettacolo L'Aquila

Past dates

  • October 2023

    21

    Frascati Amsterdam
    IT gesproken NL boventiteld

  • October 2023

    20

    Frascati Amsterdam
    IT gesproken NL boventiteld

  • October 2023

    19

    Frascati Amsterdam (Nederlandse premiere)
    IT gesproken NL boventiteld

  • September 2023

    30

    FIT festival
    Lugano, Zwitserland (première)

  • September 2023

    30

    FIT festival
    Lugano, Zwitserland

  • February 2023

    10

    Zona K
    Milaan

  • February 2023

    09

    Zona K
    Milaan

  • November 2022

    26

    Teatro Arti e Spettacolo
    L'Aquila

  • November 2022

    10

    RomaEuropa Festival
    Rome

  • November 2022

    09

    RomaEuropa Festival
    Rome

“Fragile masculinity as a ticking time bomb” (Theaterkrant)

Il disperato, ‘The Desperate’, is the third performance by Marleen Scholten about the Italian human condition, which represents that of all of us. You have to be able to see it, and Marleen Scholten, who lives in Italy, sees it.” (De Groene Amsterdammer)

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