From Ersilia Drei to Social Networks: Pirandello's tragedy comes to life amidst gender violence and the hunger for visibility

There is a vibrant anticipation for what promises to be one of the most significant events of the season Cultural Reflections. On March 28, at 8:30 PM, the Palacongressi of Agrigento will lift the curtain on “Dressing the Naked”, one of the most fierce and modern masterpieces by Luigi Pirandello.

It is not just a show, but a true institutional milestone: it is in fact the first theatrical production directly curated by the Park of the Valley of the Temples, created in collaboration with the newly established VOLEO Productions. A project that in recent months has transformed the Agrigento area into a vibrant laboratory of thought and civic responsibility.

A tragic device between mirrors and transparencies

The direction by Giovanni Volpe, combined with the adaptation curated by Volpe himself along with Gaetano Aronica, aims to essentialize the Pirandellian mechanism to make it even more incisive. At the center of the scene is Console Grotti, portrayed by an intense Gaetano Aronica, opposed to the tragic figure of Ersilia Drei, given face and voice by Marzia Patanè Tropea. Next to them, Fabrizio Milano plays the role of Franco Laspiga.

The plot is a one-way journey into the impossibility of possessing one's own truth. Ersilia is a woman stripped of all dignity, whose private life is cannibalized by the judgment of others. The staging exacerbates this social pressure through a skillful use of transparencies and stained glass: elements that transform Ludovico Nota's room into a showcase where pain becomes a spectacle for the eyes of the world.

From 1922 to Social Media: the relevance of the monster

If Pirandello wrote in the last century, the reinterpretation by Aronica and Volpe speaks directly to our present. The themes are burning: gender violence, abuse of power, and the dictatorship of the media. In the society of appearance, the drama of Ersilia Drei is reflected today in the dynamics of social networks, where the creation of a fictitious "self" is often the only way to escape the daily grayness, but risks generating monsters.

"This production responds to the need for a new light on dramaturgy in a land historically eager for confrontation with the classics," explain the promoters. A confrontation that today becomes necessary to understand the destructive dynamics of our time.

The complete cast

On stage, completing a high-profile cast, we will see Alfonso Guadagnino in the role of Ludovico Nota, Ida Agnello (Onoria) and Frou Nobile (Alfredo Cantavalle).

The appointment on Saturday evening is thus expected to be a moment of great theater, capable of shaking consciences and restoring to the city its role as capital of dramaturgical reflection.