Cena per 5

A one-act play divided into five scenes, with a single actress on stage playing four characters: the daughter, the wife, the mistress and the mother of a single man who never appears but is the focus of the thoughts and actions of these four female figures. Each one recounts the relationships, the neuroses, the expectations, the absences, but also the joys that this man – utterly oblivious and insensitive – bestows upon them. It is a conversation amongst themselves, an inner dialogue that highlights, with bitterness but also irony, what the protagonists would like but do not actually have, or have but would rather not. The elusive ‘HIM’ is perfect in the mother’s eyes but a victim of his wife; to the wife, he is hard-working but unloving; to the daughter, he is handsome but absent; to the mistress… a plaything. In the finale, the women – hypothetically represented by just one of them – wait for the man for whom they have prepared a light supper, but he does not turn up… This play depicts an everyday scene in our society, yet treated through the eyes of a little girl’s innocence, a wife’s disillusionment, a mother’s regret and a lover’s shamelessness. No one is aware, no one is perfect, but everyone plays their part, just as in everyday life: we can only tell the truth to ourselves. Or perhaps not even to ourselves? Let us take this as a starting point for reflection, giving thanks to the theatre which, through its insights, always affords us this great opportunity.