Good for Nothing

• written and directed by Lorenzo Ponte
• with Tobia Dal Corso Polzot, Paola Galassi and Luca Oldani
• set design Davide Signorini
• costumes Giulia Rossena
• lights Emanuele Agliati
• sound design Gaetano Pappalardo and Simone Sigurani
• assistant director Filippo Capobianco,
• radio newspaper voice Pietro Adami
• with the artistic supervision of Giuliana Musso
• Pictures by Foto di Luca Del Pia
• production Teatro Franco Parenti

with the support of PRAXIS - Olinda/TeatroLaCucina - Winner of the Fantastic Theatrical Animals 2021 ZONA K tender as part of the IntercettAzioni project - Lombardy Artistic Residency Centre; Claudia Lombardi Foundation for the theatre

Observe and stay on the margins to understand what is at the center of our society. Guided by this idea, for 3 years we have undertaken a journey of understanding and approaching people's lives homeless in the city of Milan. Between 2019 and 2021, the company joined psychologists, educators and volunteers who work with people experiencing this phenomenon of expulsion.

The research method was divided into three different moments. A first part of participatory observation, in which the whole company accompanied the road units for a long period on night outings in the downtown streets. This work has allowed us to build relationships of trust. The second part of the research consisted of going into the street to talk to people without being framed voluntary associations, to try to distance themselves from a volunteer-assisted relationship. Finally, where possible, we conducted interviews with homeless people, workers and volunteers and experts to try to build a broader framework that would allow us to read homelessness as a social phenomenon and not as individual problem. Our prejudices were shattered and, seen up close, we found many points of contact with people who we tend to hide and chase from the streets of our cities. The poor today are invisibilized and stigmatized because they force us to deal with the distortions and limitations of increasingly exclusive and repelling cities.

From the research described above, a narrative show emerged in which voices, silences, bodies and the emotions experienced on the field. We are at the stop of a bus that we don't know if it will ever pass. We wait for him together with three characters whose intertwining events tell like a prism the internal and social marginality of Milan. A young Bocconi student, struggling with the last exams before graduation. A 30-year-old precarious journalist, tired by the city's rhythms, she decided to volunteer with homeless people. And finally a weirdo prophet, who curses the madness that dominates the city and offers everyone a way of salvation.

With the show we want to bring the life of those on the margins back to the center by trying to question the pietistic and superior look that we reserve for deviants. The voice and experiences of the last challenge us: how do we do we face the pain of the other? And how are we, the healthy ones? And now, what can we do?