Giorgina Pi's 'Tiresias' opens Short Theatre 2020 in Rome

The Short Theatre festival inaugurated its unexpected fifteenth edition in Rome during the Coronavirus pandemic with 'Tiresias, appunti dalla vita di adesso', a theatrical work by Giorgina Pi. The piece, performed by Gabriele Portoghese with the Bluemotion group, reworks a monologue based on the myth of Tiresias. The text is drawn from Kate Tempest's collection 'Hold Your Own', translated into Italian by Riccardo Duranti and published in 2018 by e/o as 'Resta te stessa'. The performance uses a minimal set with a tree and a DJ table, featuring recorded voices in multiple languages and live singing by Portoghese, who shifts vocal timbres from dark to high-pitched. Music spans Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, American blues, Greek Rebetiko by Markos Vamvakaris and Néna Venetsánou, and a rendition of 'Babe I'm gonna leave you' on electric guitar. The show explores gender fluidity, adolescence, and the search for identity, culminating in a plea for respect and compassion. The audience sits in a semicircle recalling Greek theatres, socially distanced. The performance runs October 23–25 at Angelo Mai in Rome.