New Plays from Italy, Vol. 2

Includes: We Decided to Go Because We Dont Want to Be a Burden to You by Daria Deflorian & Antonio Tagliarini Edited by Frank Hentschker, Translated by Maria Galante We realized that we are a weight to the state, doctors, pharmacists and society. So we decided well be off, to spare you further worry. Youll save our four pensions and youll live better. The play takes place in a suburban apartment where the women have just takentheir sleeping pills. A reflection on suicide not as an existential act, but as an extreme political act. Is there an altruistic suicide? The Healer by Michele Santeramo Edited by Frank Hentschker, Translated by Allison Eikerenkoetter A drunken nearly blind old healer, with an intellectual son waiting to surpass him, attempts to heal an injured boxer, a pregnant woman, and a childless couple by bringing them together, making them relate in strange circumstances on a set where doors open and close on mysterious waiting rooms. The Neighbors by Fausto Paravidino Edited by Frank Hentschker, Translated by Jane House He is alone in the apartment. He hears some footsteps coming from the landing. Trying not to make a sound, he looks through the spyhole. He tells Greta when she comes home that he saw the neighbors. How were they? He cannot tell, seeing is not understanding, but he is scared. Why? Who knows? This is a play about our fears, real and imagined, about ourselves and the other, about neighbors near and far, about war.