Two "professional" spectators, and especially experts in experimental theatre, meet to talk about the body and theater starting from the world of Pippo Delbono. They are Maria Grazia Gregori, essayist, professor of theater history and critic of l'Unità since 1975, and Gianni Manzella, also an author of books (the latest dedicated to Leo de Berardinis) and critic of Il manifesto. Gregori launches her themes: the dazzling body, the desiring body, the body of silence, the body of words, the body as self-representation, the body as an epiphany of discomfort and marginalization. The body, above all, in the context of theatrical work, as a focus of discourse. Manzella will focus on the gesture of the performer "which surprises and confuses us", he says, "and in this confusion, in this bringing disorder and conflict, it stands out as a political act". This is how Manzella presents her intervention: “To her son who faces her with his sword drawn, Edith Clever's Clytemnestra offers her naked breast, tearing her shirt with a sudden gesture. There is an emotional content in this gesture of the actress that precedes any possible intellectual decipherment. An emotion that belongs to the here-and-now of the scenic event and that passes without mediation through the actor's body. Like a momentary internal storm. Every spectator can find in their memory these moments which make the theatrical experience profoundly different from other arts".
Gianni Manzella is a writer, essayist and cultural journalist. He has been writing for several years on the pages of the newspaper il Manifesto and founded and directs the magazine art'O cultura e politica delle arts scenica. The new edition of his book La bellezza amara. Arte e vita di Leo de Berardinis (La Casa Usher, 2010).
Maria Grazia Gregori graduated in aesthetics with Gillo Dorfles, co-supervisor Enzo Paci, with her first thesis on theater discussed at the University of Milan. He taught history of theater and direction for many years at the Paolo Grassi School of Dramatic Art in Milan but also held seminars at the Universities of Trieste and Milan and at the Scuola del Teatro Stabile in Turin. Since 1975 she has been a theater critic for l'Unità and also collaborates on the Baldini Castoldi Dalai editore website which was previously called www.delteatro.it and which has now been transformed into an important culture portal www.myword.it. In 1978, Feltrinelli published Il signore della scena, dedicated to the relationship between director's theater and actor's theater in the twentieth century, but he also wrote and continues to write in magazines and publications in the sector.