New Plays from Italy, Vol. 2

Three new plays by contemporary Italian playwrights.

Includes:

We Decided to Go Because We Don’t Want to Be a Burden to You by Daria Deflorian & Antonio Tagliarini

Edited by Frank Hentschker, Translated by Maria Galante

“We realized that we are a weight to the state, doctors, pharmacists and society. So we decided we’ll be off, to spare you further worry. You’ll save our four pensions and you’ll live better.” The play takes place in a suburban apartment where the women have just takentheir “sleeping” pills. A reflection on suicide not as an existential act, but as an extreme political act. Is there an altruistic suicide?

The Healer by Michele Santeramo

Edited by Frank Hentschker, Translated by Allison Eikerenkoetter

A drunken nearly blind old healer, with an intellectual son waiting to surpass him, attempts to heal an injured boxer, a pregnant woman, and a childless couple by bringing them together, making them relate in strange circumstances on a set where doors open and close on mysterious waiting rooms.

The Neighbors by Fausto Paravidino

Edited by Frank Hentschker, Translated by Jane House

He is alone in the apartment. He hears some footsteps coming from the landing. Trying not to make a sound, he looks through the spyhole. He tells Greta when she comes home that he saw the neighbors. How were they? He cannot tell, seeing is not understanding, but he is scared. Why? Who knows? This is a play about our fears, real and imagined, about ourselves and the other, about neighbors near and far, about war.