'La Merda': a primal scream in the midst of all the shit

'Italy is the avant-garde of shit,' according to the Italian pair Silvia Gallerano (actress) and Cristian Ceresoli (author). But the rest of the world seems to like their award-winning La Merda too.

Cristian Ceresoli and Silvia Gallerano won the Fringe First Award for Writing Excellence at the Edinburgh Festival 2012 and the Stage Award 2012 for Acting Excellence for their monologue La Merda.

It is an uncomfortable confession and the intense, rage-filled scream of a young, nude girl trying to free herself from the yoke that celebrity culture, consumerism, sexism, populism, the patriarchy, and nationalist politics have placed on her young shoulders. It became a hit that has been touring internationally for five years. Not bad for Ceresoli’s very first work of fiction ever.

Considering your success, perhaps you should have started writing this first text earlier?
Cristian Ceresoli: Or perhaps it all turned out well because I waited longer for the right time, until I had learned enough and had something to say.

Silvia Gallerano: Even when we started the piece, we didn’t have a very clearly defined idea of what we wanted to say. It just seemed as though there was a lot. They were mostly things related to our lives and things that bothered us both, despite our different backgrounds. There were issues related to changes in consumerism, visual culture, politics, and the role of art. Just like the character, everything poured out once we actually started writing.

Why do you think the show has been such a tremendous success?
Gallerano: I can simply say, of course, that Cristian has written a beautiful text. There is not a single superfluous word, but each one implies ten other, unspoken words. And though you listen to the stream of consciousness of a young girl, there is also a clear structure in the text. It is the libretto of an opera that penetrates deeper and deeper in the character in three acts.

Ceresoli: It is difficult to explain the show’s success. Don’t forget that we had actually been censored before we had even started. We had to work in very difficult political, artistic, and personal circumstances. We wanted to escape from them by creating something beautiful in the midst of all the shit. There was no other future. We would have died as artists anyway, in a manner of speaking.

Of course, Silvia’s performance also has many technical qualities that explain our success, but I think people are most surprised by what is behind the text. The very fact that this piece even exists. People say that they have never seen anything like it. And that is precisely what we wanted to do: create something new.

Is it a coincidence that this piece was made by Italians?
Gallerano: We consciously did not want to write an Italian piece. Cristian consciously did not make the references to Italy explicit. Because the bunga bunga scandal around Berlusconi erupted just after the première, La Merda was immediately associated with it. But now America has its own Berlusconi. And in Denmark it becomes a Danish piece with the Danish resonance, and in Lithuania it becomes Lithuanian.

We do sometimes laugh that Italy is the avant-garde of shit. Fascism, but also the soft dictatorship of materialism, patriarchy, populism, and sexism were all born here or are more prevalent here than elsewhere.

Are you expecting anything special from the performance in Brussels?
Ceresoli: We are a little bit concerned because the show will be subtitled in not one but two languages. But we are also very excited to be here because over the years, we have encountered amazing theatre from Belgium all over the world. The productions by the KVS, Skagen, or Ontroerend Goed are not just very well made, they also have a relevant message.

> Cristian Ceresoli and Silvia Gallerano. 26 & 27/1, 20.00, KVS BOL, Brussels