Ten stories just like that

Dieci storie proprio così is an integral part of “Il Palcoscenico della legalità”
(A Stage for Legality), a project promoted by Libera (an anti-mafia association), Fondazione Pol.i.s. (the Pol.i.s. Foundation), The “Giovanni e Francesca Falcone” Foundation, Centro Studi Paolo Borsellino (The Paolo Borsellino Research Facility),  The University of Milan – Sociology of Organized Crime Course, Coordinamento campano dei familiari delle vittime innocenti della criminalità (Campania Organization for the Relatives of Innocent Crime Victims), Fondazione Silvia Ruotolo (the Silvia Ruotolo Foundation), and Italiachecambia.org. It’s sponsored by the Italian Ministry of Justice and the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism.

“Dieci storie proprio così” is an integral part of “Il Palcoscenico della legalità” (A Stage for Legality), an experimental project consisting of collaborations between theatres, juvenile prisons, schools, and civil society. The show was written by Giulia Minoli and Emanuela Giordano, who is also the director, and is supported by La Fondazione Polis della Regione Campania (the Campania Region Polis Foundation). It tells the stories of well-known and unknown victims of organized crime, stories about civic engagement and social redemption, individual and collective responsibility, institutional complicity and tacit consent. It speaks to the courage that has been shown by associations supported by unyielding youth, the tenacity of the victims’ relatives, and the commitment on the part of so many citizens to make remembrance an unalienable right. These stories avoid succumbing to celebratory hyperbole and instead weave together, in a shared tableau full of energy and life. “Dieci storie proprio così” is a “rational” provocation against the transversal and ever-present mafia network, which aims to destroy our collective conscience and ability to understand and react. As we write, we are continuing to receive testimonies, questions, and reflections which don’t just regard other people’s work but also speak to our individual responsiblities and the redemption which we must undertake, so that rights and obligations truly are the same for everyone.

Theatre doesn’t broadcast messages but is content to offer stimuli: we are truly convinced that this is what we need to try to do, especially if we think about our youth. We target our work for youth, and offer it in schools throughout Italy so that a performance isn’t just an event, but part of a path which considers issues that are fundamental to their growth.