Mamma. Piccole tragedie minimali

Mamma. Piccole tragedie minimali is Annibale Ruccello’s final work, written and premiered in 1986 as a “monologue in four parts”. Initially registered under the title Mamme, the piece explores the archetype of motherhood with harshness and lucidity through solitary, cold and displaced female figures, unable to face the outside world and trapped in an intimate, distorted and obsessive reality.

The work presents several episodes: Le fiabe, a bitter reinterpretation of a Neapolitan tale; Maria di Carmelo, featuring a woman admitted to a psychiatric hospital who believes she is the Virgin Mary but dreams of being Orietta Berti; Mal di denti, in which a mother discovers her daughter’s pregnancy and tragedy erupts; and La telefonata, a long telephone monologue full of gossip and references to soap operas.

Forty years later, Enrico Ianniello and Fabrizia Sacchi revive this visionary work, coinciding with Ruccello’s double anniversary (1956 – 1986).