Ricci/Forte's Radical Shakespeare at Spoleto Festival

At the 60th Festival di Spoleto, directors Ricci and Forte stage a radical reinterpretation of Shakespeare's 'Troilus and Cressida' that merges theater and dance. The production satirizes the 'society of the spectacle' through a lens of war driven by lust and vanity, set across three scenes: a classroom, a beauty salon, and an undefined space evoking classical antiquity. Fifteen actors double as schoolchildren and warriors, performing to a disco-punk soundtrack reminiscent of the Oi! skinhead subculture, contrasted with traditional Sicilian music. The linguistic register shifts between TV jargon, sexual slang, political gossip, and Sicilian dialect. The narrative critiques mass society's intellectual shallowness, with Troilus as a romantic idealist amid a chorus of women gossiping about Trojan heroes. The final scene features a dance performance that returns to the theme of war's origins, though the critique of spectacle fades. Reviewer Niccolò Lucarelli notes the production is conceptually strong but narratively uneven, with Cassandra underutilized as a critical voice. The show runs at the Festival di Spoleto.