A daughter and her parents, both in their nineties, the Sunday lunch and a recurring subject: death and separation. This is the story at the heart of “La morte ovvero il pranzo della domenica” (“Death, or Sunday Lunch”), staged Wednesday 18 November at 9pm at Teatro Titano, as part of the San Marino Teatro season.
Conceived, written and directed by Mariano Dammacco, the play is performed by Serena Balivo, alone on stage, with original music by Marcello Gori and production by Compagnia Diaghilev. The text was a finalist for the 2024 Ubu Prize in the New Italian Text/Dramaturgical Writing category.
Balivo plays a middle-aged woman who visits her parents for lunch every Sunday. The elderly couple, still in good physical and mental health, are aware they must eventually face death, and end up discussing it during their family gatherings.
“Through their dialogue, questions, fears and thoughts emerge that belong to all of us when confronted with the unknown. Sunday lunch thus becomes a family ritual and an opportunity to prepare, with irony and tenderness, for the inevitable separation, revealing the quiet strength of the love between parents and children,” reads the show’s presentation statement.
The writing alternates irony, paradoxical situations and passages devoted to memory and loss. “The minimal staging, accompanied by Marcello Gori’s original music and carefully crafted lighting, leaves room for the power of the spoken word and for Serena Balivo’s intense performance, alone on stage,” the statement continues.
The production continues the artistic partnership between Balivo and Dammacco. The actress received the 2017 Ubu Prize for Best Actress Under 35 and the 2021 Ivo Chiesa International Prize. Dammacco won the 2020-2021 Ubu Prize for New Italian Text with “Spezzato è il cuore della bellezza”.
Tickets can be purchased on the San Marino Teatro website or at the Teatro Titano box office, which opens four hours before the performance begins.
