ROMA – The title says it all! “Bites” by British playwright Kay Adshead, on stage at Teatro dell’Orologio, is a show marked by the courses of a planetary meal: star soup (episode taking place in Afghanistan), hog roast (in Texas), pickle and so on. This work, translated by Andrea Peghinelli and directed by Elena Vannoni for the theatre company Teatrificio, takes place in a restaurant at the end of the world, where courses made out of dramaturgy, poetry and universal history are served to the audience. Director Elena Vannoni – who won the National Arts Award in 2004 – strongly emphasizes this setting, with a brechtish staging where the stage itself is unevenly composed by the tables of the reastaurant. Kay Adhsead – who won in 2000 the prestigious Fringe Festival in Edinburg – explains: «Elena Vannoni’s exciting new production of my play Bites for the wonderfully innovative and ambitious young company, Teatrificio, is visually witty and darkly intelligent, coaxing performances of real emotional depth from her talented and versatile cast. Total Theatre!». The audience, of course, doesn’t eat actual food, but feeds on a stimulating and challenging writing.

in La Repubblica, by Rodolfo Di Giammarco