Marco Martinello Brings Dante to Perugia Students Through Theatre at KUM Festival 2026

Marco Martinello accepted an invitation from Massimo Recalcati to deliver a "lectio" in Perugia, meeting students from the city's high schools and upper secondary institutes during the September Anteprima of the KUM festival's 2026 edition. Entering the Auditorium Aldo Capitini on the morning of 16 September, Martinello found the hall packed with roughly 500 students, according to the organizers, a crowd he described as noisy and restless. He admitted his heart sank and he wondered whether he would survive the day, despite more than 30 years of facing adolescents of every age, social class, language, nation and continent. His method, he explains, is play: the serious, furious game that Greece named "teatro" 25 centuries ago, born in the name of Dionysus, the god who overturns the cards. The piece, titled "Cantare e ballare Dante," is credited to Martinello with Anita Romanello and dated Tuesday 20 October 2026.