Stories of People on a Journey

Rita Maffei

Stories of People on a Journey is a participatory theatre performance directed by Rita Maffei and created with the participation of refugees from the SPRAR reception project managed by the Città della Pace Foundation for Children and Arci Basilicata, and with young citizens from the Basilicata reception communities.
The show made its debut in Matera in September 2019 at the Sud Earth multimedia dance, theatre and music festival, as part of PAX MATER / MADRE PACE / MOTHER PEACE, during the week when Matera was the European host for inter-faith dialogue for peace as part of the International Day of Peace.

In 2018 Rita Maffei met and interviewed 22 people from Syria, Mali, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Nepal, Ivory Coast, Gambia and Basilicata during theatrical workshops held over six months. At the end of these she and the whole group presented the work they had developed: Human Link.
The following year, the director worked with 7 of the participants to perform the show based on that experience, which also includes clips from video interviews with all the participants.

The show Stories of People on a Journey is born from arrivals: citizens and refugees take to the stage to tell their own stories of journeys and compare their different experiences. This is an original theatrical piece that has its roots in the classical texts of Greek theatre, developed in a contemporary context.