I’d define myself as a living author rather than a contemporary one. My works often deal with people with a strong connection to the land they live on. Another key element is the South, meant not as a geographical place but as a social dimension everyone can belong to, either you live in Vienna or Tunis. A South inhabited by disadvantaged people who still claim their right to live.
Michele Santeramo (22.08.1974) Author-actor, he wrote Nobili e Porci libri, Konfine (shortlisted for ENZIMI 2003), Accadueò (VOCI DELL’ANIMA Award 2004), Murgia (special mention at GENERAZIONE SCENARIO 2003), Vico Angelo Custode, Sacco e Vanzetti, loro malgrado, published by Editoria & Spettacolo. He also wrote Le scarpe, Cirano, Sogno degli artigiani in 2007 and Fanculopensiero stanza 510. Sequestro all’italiana (finalist at Riccione per il Teatro Award 2009). He is author of Le Scarpe together with Teatro Minimo and co-produced by Fondazione Pontedera Teatro (2010) and La rivincita (2012). He won the Riccione per il Teatro Award 2011 with Il guaritore. In 2012 he wrote Il giorno del Signore.
Theatre works
2001 / Nobili e porci libri; first staged in 2001; published in 2005.
2002 / Konfine, first staged in 2002; published in 2005.
2003 / Murgia; first staged in 2003; published in 2005.
2004 / Accadueò; first staged in 2004; published in 2005.
2005 / Vico Angelo Custode, first staged in 2005; published in 2005.
2006 / Il sogno degli artigiani, first staged in 2006.
2007 / Cirano; first staged in 2007.
2007 / Amleto; first staged in 2007.
2007 / Sacco e Vanzetti, first staged in 2007; published in 2007.
2008 / I Reduci, first staged in 2008.
2009 / Sequestro all’Italiana; first staged in 2009; published in 2010.
2010 / Le Scarpe; first staged in 2010.
2011 / La Rivincita; first staged in 2012.
2012 / Storia d’amore e di calcio, first staged in 2012.
2011-12 / Il giorno del Signore, first staged in 2012.
La Rivincita (The Payback)
Vincenzo works the land. The pesticides used in agriculture have caused him a form of sterility and he can’t give his wife a baby. They expropriated the land he used to live off and he ends up tangled up in a net of lent money, difficulties, problems. A story about the land and creature comforts, with no room for desire.
Number of characters: 11 (6 actors) personae: Vincenzo, Sabino, Marta, Angela, lawyer, loan shark, bank employee, gynaecologist, physician assistant, secretary, bartender.
– Extracts from The Payback –
Scene x
(…)
MARTA: We have to choose the right hospital. We can’t get there last minute. I have been told that…
VINCENZO: We can’t afford it no more.
MARTA: What?
VINCENZO: Having a baby. We can’t afford it no more.
MARTA: Afford it?
VINCENZO: The expropriation. It is official now.
MARTA: What’s the baby’s got to do with the expropriation?
VINCENZO: How will we feed him?
MARTA: We will share our food with him.
VINCENZO: A baby doesn’t eat our same food.
MARTA: You will get another job.
VINCENZO: Where do I find another job? They took off the land from me, I can’t even set foot in the bank because of that asshole of my brother, how will I feed him? I am only saying let’s wait for a year or two, I’ll find a solution and then we’ll have another one.
MARTA: And what about him? What will we do with him?
VINCENZO: What am I supposed to do? I do want a baby, but we can’t have him now. What will we do when we won’t have anything to feed him? The social services will come here? Just like the woman on the second floor?
MARTA: But I can…
VINCENZO: You what? What can you do? Now they have expropriated the land, where can I work? We can’t think for ourselves but for him.
MARTA: Is this how we think for him? We get rid of him and that’s it?
VINCENZO: If we don’t do it now, someone will do it later.
MARTA: No one will take our child from us. Who does such things?
VINCENZO: We won’t be even able to feed him. If we have to loose him, we’d better loose him now that we still don’t know him.
MARTA: You don’t know him.
Vincenzo gets up, takes the box with the ribbon and hides it. Marta lets him do it.
Scene xx
(…)
MARCELLO: I’ll just call the doctor.
VINCENZO: Excuse me, just a moment… I wanted to ask you something. By any chance… I mean… Who are you? Are you a doctor?
MARCELLO: Sure. I am a graduate doctor..
VINCENZO: Well… Nothing, then… It is a delicate issue… I thought I could speak to you, a man-to-man talk… I don’t know, it is just that…. The doctor is a woman, isn’t she?
MARCELLO: Yes, she is.
VINCENZO: Do you see what I mean? I… It’s embarrassing to say such private things to a woman… It’s embarrassing to show her… Well, do you know what I mean?
MARCELLO: Alright, tell me.
VINCENZO: Doctor.
MARCELLO: Tell me.
VINCENZO: My wife…
MARCELLO: Your wife what?
VINCENZO: Nothing, doctor, my wife… She can’t get pregnant. We try and try, but nothing happens. She did some medical tests and everything is fine.
MARCELLO: How long have you been trying?
VINCENZO: Two years.
MARCELLO: Regularly?
VINCENZO: Yes, regularly.
MARCELLO: All right. This is the vial. Go into that room, do you know what and when you’re finished, you call me.
VINCENZO: What should I do?
MARCELLO: What should you do? You will find some magazines to help you out in case you don’t…
VINCENZO: Oh, I got it. No problem.
Vincenzo exits.
Scene xxx
(…)
SABINO: Did you borrow money from the loan shark?
VINCENZO: Who told you?
SABINO: Does it change anything?
VINCENZO: I did it because I needed money.
SABINO: Couldn’t you ask somebody else?
VINCENZO: I asked you.
SABINO: A bank, a finance company…
VINCENZO: I can’t even set foot in the bank because of that check of yours.
SABINO: And so you turned to a loan shark?
VINCENZO: What was I supposed to do?
SABINO: But why?
VINCENZO: I needed a cure.
SABINO: Were you ill?
VINCENZO: No!
SABINO: Why the fuck did you need a cure if you weren’t ill?
VINCENZO: To have a baby.
Silence.
VINCENZO: I used to think that old people… Do you remember when everyone said “bloody misery, bloody misery” … Now we don’t say it no more. The old people would say bloody misery. Do you know why? Because misery sucks, I tell you. What do I need money for? For regular things, because we don’t want to live in bloody misery.
Silence.
VINCENZO: Have you got 5 euros?
Sabino takes out his wallet and gives his brother 5 euros. Vincenzo exits.
(…)
