Emma Dante’s “The Angel of the Hearth”

In late November, Emma Dante brought her latest show, L’Angelo del focolare (The Angel of the Hearth) to Milan’s Piccolo Teatro. Over the last thirty years, this Sicilian writer and director has built an outstanding reputation for an innovative style of theatre that transcends realism to explore the territory of dream and ritual. Like previous work, in The Angel of the Hearth, the playwright delves, with insight, into the dynamics of a Sicilian family.

The Angel of the Hearth begins on an almost empty stage, except for a woman’s body (Mother) slumped downstage centre, while on the left, an elderly woman (Grandmother) sits in an armchair. Soon the elderly woman’s son and her grandson enter, carrying a toilet, a single bed, a table, a couple of chairs, putting in place the basic items needed to conjure up a makeshift home. From the outset the family dynamics are deeply conflictual. The Mother and Grandmother – none of the characters have proper names – are intent on pampering the Son, the Grandmother stuffing him with crisps, the Mother, encouraging him to become a singer and teaching him to be gentle and loving towards his future wife. The dialogue in Sicilian brings each character vividly to life; the Husband’s Sicilian, for example, is minimal, showing his lack of education. In sharp contrast to the women in the family, he is bent on turning his son into a macho man. He knocks the boy around, dressing himself and his son in a black shirt and trousers. Grabbing two bottles of gin, he proceeds to ply the young man with alcohol, until he is drunk. He orders the boy to act like a lion which roars fiercely the moment it is baited. His idea of courtship is similarly aggressive, since it entails stalking a woman, like a bird of prey, and in the end, devouring the spoils.

The tension in this small family group slowly mounts, as the women continue to go about their daily choirs, making coffee, cleaning the floor, ironing the men’s clothes – in their own ways, they are both ‘Angels of the House’ in what is a deeply dysfunctional family. Parallel to these everyday tasks, the Husband beats his wife from time to time, despite her subservience. The situation reaches breaking point, when, lying on the bed, the Son throws his legs into the air, flaunting a pair of glittery dance shoes. The Mother enters and catches him pulling on a beautiful rose-pink dress. Words of explanation, on his part, are unnecessary, since his mother immediately understands his need for a new identity and gives him a big hug. Enter the Husband, who, at the sight of his son, begins a violent onslaught on his wife, repeatedly battering her on the head with a steam-iron. A chilling silence enveloped the stalls at the Piccolo Teatro as the Mother continued to bounce back again and again, while the Husband continued to beating. When the beating stopped, she lay motionless on the floor for a few seconds. After which she gets up, stares out into the auditorium, then walking stage right, she washes a scar off her face. A dance, involving the four-strong cast, ensues, slowly becoming faster and more joyous, the characters moving to the music and rhythm of Angelo Branduardi’s well-known song, La fiera dell’est (An East-European Fair).

This production – with superb performances by Leonorda Saffi (Mother), Ivano Picciallo (Husband), David Leone (Son), Giuditta Perriera (Grandmother) points to the harsh reality of domestic violence, and its ritualistic, cyclic dynamics. In this case, it leads to the female victim being murdered. The final dance seemed to invite us to dream of a non-violent world, where women and men can live in harmony. As in other works by Emma Dante, the play’s theme transcends her native Sicily, reaching a more universal sphere.

In 2024 ISTAT statistic show that 116 women in Italy were murdered, many in the setting of the home, pointing to the gravity of the situation and the relevance of this work.

The Angelo del focolare is a co-production of Piccolo Teatro di Milano – Teatro d’Europa, Teatro di Napoli – Teatro Nazionale, Châteauvallon-Liberté, scène nationale, Les Célestins, Théâtre de Lyon, La Comédie de Clermont-Ferrand, Scène Nationale d’ALBI-Tarn, Le Cratère, Scène nationale Alès, L’Estive, scène nationale de Foix et de l’Ariège, Théâtre + Cinéma Scène nationale Grand Narbonne, Théâtre de l’Archipel, scène nationale de Perpignan, Théâtre Molière, Sète scène nationale archipel de Thau, Le Parvis, scène nationale Tarbes-Pyrénées, Compagnia Sud Costa Occidentale, Carnezzeria