Shut Up. Or Rather, Speak @Arena del Sole - Bologna

Shut Up. Or Rather, Speak. Diary of a Feminist, 1972–1977
world premiere
Teatro Arena del Sole – Bologna
Wednesday 16 and Saturday 19 December at 9 pm
Thursday 17 and Friday 18 December at 7 pm
Sunday 20 December at 6 pm

Ateliersi continues its exploration of Carla Lonzi, one of the central figures of Italian feminism, through her diaries. Written between 1972 and 1977, they bring together memories, dreams, letters sent and unsent, poetry, phone calls, political reflections and intimate confessions. For Lonzi, writing is an essential act of inquiry and authenticity: a way of confronting the conflicts between patriarchal society and the “unexpected subject” that is woman. To enter these texts is to witness a woman’s intimate history while finding ourselves at the heart of our collective history: that of Italy in the 1970s, with its events and revolutions.

Conceived and directed by Fiorenza Menni, with dramaturgy by Sara De Simone and Caterina Venturini, the performance draws on over a thousand pages of thought and experience. Beginning in the present, it gradually leads us into the atmosphere of the consciousness-raising practices of feminist collectives in the late 1960s and the 1970s. Three performers weave together voice, song and spoken word in a shared space of listening, where the author’s voice invites us once again to question freedom, desire, relationships and the power of words.