Elena Arvigo after the Le Maschere Award, on stage at the 'Cilento festival – Pollica' with I Monologhi dell'Atomica

On the occasion of the 26th anniversary of the Chernobyl tragedy, Elena Arvigo, a sensitive and intense interpreter, a careful investigator of the female soul, returns to the Teatro Argot Studio in Rome, on 27 and 2015 April with The Atomic Monologues from “Prayer for Chernobyl” by Svetlana Aleksievich (Nobel Prize for Literature XNUMX) and from “Tales of the Atomic Bomb” by Kyoko Hayashi. Elena Arvigo, brings the female figure to the centre as a witness to tragic episodes linked to war and the criminality of human choices. The two events at the origin of the show: Chernobyl and Hiroshima.

On April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, on August 9, 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki to accelerate Japan's surrender: two dark chapters, two events that have marked consciences and that are recalled here by Aleksievich (Nobel Prize for Literature 2015) through some testimonies/monologues including that of Ljudmila Ignatenko, wife of a firefighter, soldiers, children and by Kyoko Hayashi, a writer but above all a hibakusha, as the survivors of the atomic bomb are called in Japan. The reconstruction in both stories is not of the events, but of the feelings through the eyes of these women witnesses and writers, in an ideal relay to cultivate the need for memory. The story of these voices focuses on the human dimension of the tragedy, on the feelings of the survivors, on the deep, internal, individual history of those who experienced those events firsthand. At the center of the show are people. The Great History is told through the small stories of the people who suffered it, their emotions, their feelings, their dramas. Interrupted lives of men, women and children, drastically changed, daily life turned upside down and destroyed.

The German philosopher Günther Anders with his philosophy of discrepancy (Diskrepanzphilosophie), in the wake of philosophical anthropology, tried to describe the divergence between what has become technically possible (such as the destruction of the world with atomic bombs) and what the human mind is able to imagine, becoming a great exponent of the anti-nuclear movement; precisely because a goal of philosophical anthropology was to note how the difference between man and animal is ascribed to the terrifying exclusive capacities of man: man is the only animal capable of destroying the Earth.

“The Atomic Monologues” is part of a project on women and war with the significant title “The Unforgivables”: a series of studies started by Elena Arvigo in 2013 on women, uncomfortable witnesses, mythical and real, linked by the red thread of war, unforgivable women because, precisely, they are uncomfortable witnesses of the reality that surrounds them. Women who choose not to remain silent and resist – resist and act. The journalistic act and the poetic act thus become a symbol and testimony of a resistance, first of all, of thought.

The shows born within this project include: «Donna non rieducabile» by Stefano Massini, an imaginary memorandum inspired by the reportages of Anna Politkovskaya, known for her commitment to human rights, the “War Diaries” from “Il Dolore” and the “Quaderni della Guerra” by Marguerite Duras: two texts of heartbreaking intimacy on the border between poetry and memory in which Duras recounts the war and the women's wait and “La Metafisica della Bellezza, lettere dalle case brothels” in which an attempt was made to focus on the real story of the girls from the “brothels” closed forever in 1958 thanks to the commitment and tenacity of one woman, Lina Merlin, another uncomfortable and unforgivable witness.

The show debuted in 2016 as a monologue in the "A Room of Her Own" series directed by Daniele Salvo. Over the years, it has participated in numerous festivals and events on civil rights, including Memoralia in 2022 and "Focus Aleksievich" at the Altrove Theater in Genoa. Six years later, in 6, it returned to its choral vocation, bringing Monica Santoro, an actress who graduated from the St. Petersburg Academy of Dramatic Arts in 2021 and worked as an actress at Pyotr Fomenko's Laboratory Theater from 2006 to 2007. In some performances, she took part in the show in the role of the soldier Francesco Biagetti, an acting student at the Genoa School.

Elena Arvigo wrote this at her 2016 debut: “I have added Aleksievich to the list of “Unforgivables,” uncomfortable and necessary witnesses of our times to whom I have been dedicating my work over the years. Last year I worked on Anna Politkovskaya with “Donna non rieducabile” by S. Massini and in some ways this work, this journey of mine continues with the study of “Prayer for Chernobyl” and “Tales of the Atomic Bomb.” What I hope to bring to the stage is precisely this journey I am on. It is a path that is only just beginning and in my dreams I would like to share this “story” with other actresses. To truly make it “Voices of Chernobyl and Nagasaki” – they are important, demanding stories and being able to share the work with someone is perhaps the most beautiful part of this profession.”

In the show notes: "What I hope to convey is the tragic fate of these very human stories. Bringing closer what seems distant in time and space to feel a sense of responsibility for the future. Svetlana Aleksievich writes, "More than once I had the impression that I wasn't actually talking about the past but rather that I was writing down the future.

The show will be accompanied by an exhibition by the painter Fabiana Iacolucci who joined the Imperdonabili project in 2015 with Valentina Calvani, creating ten Indian ink paintings inspired by the theme of uncomfortable witnesses and travelling with the show to several cities including Milan and Genoa.