
How much is your dignity worth?

How much is your dignity worth?

How much is your dignity worth?
THE CASTING
written by Chiara Arrigoni
directed by Francesco Toto
starring Massimo Leone, Andrea Ferrara, Chiara Arrigoni
year of production 2016-2017
running time 60 mins.
"GIOVANI REALTÀ DEL TEATRO" NATIONAL PRIZE 2016 | ARTISTIC JURY AWARD (ITALY)
NATIONAL PRIZE OF ARTS 2017 | BEST PLAYWRITING (ITALY)
DOMINIO PUBBLICO FESTIVAL 2017 | TEATRO INDIA OF ROME (ITALY)
MILANO OFF FIL FESTIVAL 2017 | SELECTED FOR AVIGNON LE OFF 2018 (ITALY)
SWINDON FRINGE FESTIVAL 2018 | BEST DRAMA PERFORMANCE (UK)
NAPLES TRENTATRAM FESTIVAL 2018 | BEST SHOW AND BEST ACTOR (ITALY)
In a bleak basement, a job interviewer named Mr T. is challenging two candidates – Sarah and Miguel – in order to choose the best one for a mysterious job. The only thing we know is that the reward is huge: 100.000 euros for just one night. Only the most motivated (or the most desperate?) between Sarah and Miguel will be hired as long as he/she will persuade the job interviewer to be ready to go beyond any feeling of personal guilt.
The public is caught up in an on-going conversation that at first looks like a normal job interview, but that in time reveals just how terrible is the task the two candidates must be willing to carry out: to take part in an orgy for rich but bored people that want something stronger to feel alive. It isn’t a normal orgy either: it’s a kind of ritual for an élite that has lost the sense of life, a sexual Russian roulette with a special guest that no one in the orgy can recognize: the HIV-affected.
Mr T. seems to take pleasure in exploring Miguel and Sarah’s motivations that force them to be there, one against the other, alone in front of a terrible question: how much is my dignity worth?
first version debut during Contaminazioni Festival 2016, at Teatro Orologio, Rome (September 2016)
full version debut during Dominio Pubblico Festival 2017, at Teatro India, Rome (June 2017)