Ladies Body Show

Maria Dolores Pesce / DRAMMA.IT
Il Giardino delle Esperidi Festival 2021
Once again, the female body is pivotal, caught at the crossroads of its image, imposed and managed like a commercial, and an inevitably inconsistent reality. However, paradoxically, through dramaturgical irony and a savvy use of wit never slipping into farce, beauty is represented when it is a sincere revolution, even if only in the sense of a shift in perspective. A sort of a fashion show, or rather, a show of modes and clichés, where the weight of preconceived, at times alienating ideas reaches a point of irresolvable dissociation between (social) success and failure, gradually dissolving into a liberating laugh, which is ultimately a deep reflection on who we are.

Vincenzo Sardelli / KLP
“XVII GIARDINO DELLE ESPERIDI. IL FESTIVAL TRA NATURA E LEGGEREZZA”
Spaced-out and wide-eyed Silvia Baldini, Francesca Albanese, and Laura Valli flood us with their enthusiasm. They inject their energy in the caustic “Ladies Body Show”, a smart and witty show directed by another crazy and stage star protagonist, Silvia Gribaudi, who recently received the Hystrio Award, capable of giving each body its own voice, each centimetre of adipose tissue its own dramaturgical strength. “Ladies Body Show” with its catch questions about beauty and femininity, art and creativity, power and money, is a whiff of humour applied to body languages. The performance is one of irreverent irony. It’s all female vitality: sweeping away the stereotypes of conformist minds; melting down the pinguidity of serial brains.

Enrico Pastore / IL PICKWICK
Giano Bifronte nel Giardino delle Esperidi
Ladies Body Show by Qui e Ora Residenza Teatrale directed by Silvia Gribaudi features the talented Francesca Albanese, Silvia Baldini, and Laura Valli. In a fun, even light-hearted atmosphere, three women in their underwear expose themselves to the judging look of the audience. In actual fact our body is always under judgement, even fierce judgement, under the eyes of people interacting with us. Through our shell, we often establish the success or failure of an action, a request, an act of love, an endeavour. The process of evaluation, also economic, of what is displayed before our eyes is examined through theatre. But who are we to judge? Goods and consumers come together in a neoliberal system that judges the success of a product through its packaging and only based on quantity, irrespective of its true, intrinsic quality. The body is thus political, it affirms its existence and exposes the polluting and toxic way of how we act as a society of observers. The innocent and obtuse look had already been butchered by Buñuel in Un chien andalou (1929), but the omnipresent look of social media and the digital world has made us all morbid in observing, evaluating, granting our approval and decreeing success or failure. Fearlessly exposing oneself to scrutiny might seem inconsiderate and exhibitionist, but it can also appear brave though aware that we cannot escape a cannibalistic system where even rebellion becomes a show.