Altri Percorsi, the Fondazione Teatro Donizetti’s season dedicated to new theatrical expressiveness, is coming to an end: on Thursday, April 3 (8:30 PM) and Friday, April 4 (10:30 AM), The Trials is scheduled at the Teatro Sociale in Città Alta. The play, written by English playwright Dawn King, is staged by director Veronica Cruciani involving twelve young actors from the Accademia dei Filodrammatici in Milan. Translation by Monica Capuani. Set and costume design by Erika Carretta. Lighting design by Fabrizio Visconti. Sound dramaturgy by John Cascone. Video contributions by Stefano Capra and Umberto Terruso.
Staged in the summer of 2022 at the Donmar Warehouse in London, The Trials takes us to a very near future, where the reckoning for humanity’s wound inflicted on the environment has begun. Outside, the air is almost unbreathable, life has become complicated, and the future gloomy. The youngest generation is called to take an active part in the “trials”, referenced in the title, of people who have committed crimes against sustainability. These juries of young people have the power of life or death, and the six girls and six boys presenting the text will have to try three adults. There will be animated discussions, as the personalities and ethical and political views of these young people are profoundly different, and the responsibility entrusted to them is heavy. As in the best contemporary English drama, the personal element will burst into the finale, sweeping away the risk of a didactic approach in a text of such immediate relevance.
Veronica Cruciani, who has directed several shows for Altri Percorsi in the past, including Michela Murgia’s Accabadora, a co-production of the Fondazione Teatro Donizetti itself, recounts: “In the play The Trials, author Dawn King imagines a future era, not too far from our own, an irreparably damaged world where a jury of young people gathers to try some people from their parents’ generation. The accusation against them is their failure to halt climate change. I chose this text precisely for its uncomfortable and urgent vision, presenting a planet that can no longer sustain its population, where the air is so polluted that you can’t open a window, where flights and meat consumption are prohibited. The battle lines within this jury of twelve boys and girls are clear: some of the young people believe that all the defendants are guilty because they didn’t act when they had the chance, others argue that without humanity and compassion, humanity itself has no future chance. The focus of the debate is on the climate crisis, on the generational clash, but it also raises important questions about the issue of justice. What is the difference between justice and revenge? Can we rank guilt? Can remorse be a mitigating factor? In this theatrical court, the questions are addressed bluntly, but the answers are not easy or immediate.”
The Trials, a performance linked to one of the main projects of the Cantiere del Teatro of the Fondazione Teatro Donizetti, is, in Veronica Cruciani’s words, “a text that functions as an allegory, but it is also an exploration of the consequences that could occur if governments do not significantly address climate change in the immediate future. This text can be an excellent starting point for an even more intricate and difficult future question that we should all ask ourselves today: how is it possible to promote change within a capitalist system?”
