Processo alla democrazia

In this new text from the “Processi a Teatro” series, we are faced with an unusual and insidious trial, because in the dock there is not, as is customary, a physical person—a protagonist of History—but a powerful idea governing peoples, a form of politics and society. It is this abstraction that must answer to the charges brought against it by the Prosecution and contested by the Defense.
Democracy thus takes on flesh, becoming a character: one of the oldest masks in history and myth. But why take such a risk? If theatre is one of the deepest and most effective artistic forms for engaging with, confronting, becoming passionate about, and embracing the doubts and nuances of both the past and the present, then it is legitimate to turn to its form to “stage” the tragic—perhaps even agonizing—struggle of Western democracy, and more specifically of our democratic institutions.