L’Angelo del Focolare

An overflowing laundry basket, a bed in a corner, some chairs, a table. This is the spartan world of the housewife (and angel) at the heart of this play. One day, she lies on the floor, dead. Her husband’s violence has killed her. So she rewinds her story: her life spent caring for her ageing mother-in-law, her depressed son and her abusive husband who never does his bit.
By laying bare this circle of hell, Emma Dante dissects the mechanisms of violence and the weight of machismo. Having completed her trilogy inspired by *The Tale of Tales* (*La Scortecata*, *Pupo di zucchero* and *Re Chicchinella*), the Sicilian playwright now turns her attention to the present day. Yet she follows the same path: that of energetic theatre, straddling farce and tragedy, laughter and cruelty.
Using the dialects of southern Italy, Emma Dante has a knack for bringing to life bodies that are constrained, damaged and hampered, infusing her latest creation with incredible vitality. She takes us from laughter to tears with the story of this ‘angel of the hearth’, a woman who is a victim of her husband’s violence.

In Italian and the Apulian dialect, with French surtitles
Warning: scenes of violence and explicit language

Text, direction, set design and costumes by Emma Dante
Starring David Leone, Giuditta Perriera, Ivano Picciallo and Leonarda Saffi