Animals, plants, people, feelings, thoughts, or rather goods and flows of goods, and ultimately everything that moves in and through the territory (that of the north-east), is regulated by the same metronome, "works" with the same seconds, or rather, in the human case, has the impression of it; but in the interstices, in the folds, in the edges, in the residual, abandoned spaces, on the margins, outside the flow, another time works and so in any case we die. Curious: the places where its presence is felt most intensely are abandoned factories. The first impression one gets, exploring these spaces, is that time has suddenly stopped there, but of course no, it is not like that, it just doesn't flow, it doesn't flow, it stays, it inhabits the place, it pervades its atmosphere, it lets itself breathe, touch, think, and in the meantime it works, indifferent, with obstinate determination.
Part diary, part essay, part monologue. Tristissimi giardini by Vitaliano Trevisan is all this and more. It is one of the most interesting books in the panorama of Italian fiction, capable of describing a territory - that of the north-east - which is in its own way emblematic and representative of the entire country. In what Trevisan tells in the book and in this show there is indeed contemporary Veneto with its "widespread suburbs" but also the whole of Italy with its contradictions.
Vitaliano Trevisan is an actor and writer, published in Italy by Einaudi, Laterza, Sironi and translated in France by Gallimard and Verdier with a wide production: novels, plays, screenplays - among the latter that for Primo amore by Matteo Garrone. At his side on stage is Ettore Martin, saxophonist, composer and arranger from Vicenza who boasts various recording works - five albums under his name -, numerous collaborations with artists such as Cecil Bridgewater, Paolo Birro, David Boato, Robert Bonisolo, Lee Harper, Cheryl Porter, Saverio Tasca and performances in well-known international festivals.