May 30 – The show “No one knew that we were saints” is loosely based on the book by Eraldo Misha, and it is directed by Eva Martelli. For this season, it went onstage at the Theatre of Fenaroli Theatre Lanciano, receiving the Plaque of Honor 2012 by the Italian Miners Association – Victims of Marcinelle Lettomanoppello. The show’s next stop is Marcinelle, in Belgium, at the UNESCO site Bois du Cazier, where, on August 8, 1956 the lives of many families changed forever. 136 Italian miners lost their lives in the Bois du Cazier accident and Abruzzo was one of the most affected regions by this tragedy. The story is told from the perspective of the women and children who saw their destiny suddenly change. From the poor life conditions of Abruzzo’s provinces to the relative forced migration, the show, loosely based on the verse book by Eraldo Misha (published in 1958), portrays migrant Italy and offers sketches out some of the men who lost their lives in Marcinelle. Antonio, Stefano, Filippone, Taddeo, Camillo, and Prospero symbolically represent all the miners who died in the Bois du Cazier Mine. The dramaturgical and directorial work (by Eva Martelli) focuses on evocating glimpses of everyday life: the women’s domestic work is characterized by a gesture that is both common and part of a ritual, bringing out the stories of their men, their faces, and the inner movements. Wives, mothers, daughters, sisters are all witnesses of the tragedy and become the true memory keepers, never forgetting that the right to work means above all the right to life, yesterday and today. The theater play will inspire the narrative structure of the documentary “Uomini a Perdere” by director Antonello Tiracchia, dedicated to the Marcinelle tragedy.
