Amelia builds a fragile, suspended universe, permeated by a constant tension between presence and disappearance. Priscilla Pizziol and Edoardo Sgambato’s work unfolds around an exceptionally delicate physical relationship, in which contact between the two bodies is never truly broken. Simona Sant, Paneacquaculture

The chair on stage gradually takes on the role of a third body: the compositional centre of gravity and a dramaturgical device capable of evoking memory, absence and desire. Simona Sant, Paneacquaculture

In Amelia, fragments of gesture and relationship seem to surface as traces of an unfinished discourse on love. The choreography works through restraint and delicacy. Matteo Brighenti, Paneacquaculture

The performers’ continuous orbiting around an unstable centre generates a hypnotic stage dynamic, in which fragility becomes compositional material. Sara Chiappori, Teatro e Critica

Amelia is a tribute to fragility—an invitation to immerse oneself in the realm of memory and to let oneself be touched by the sense of emptiness that follows its loss. (Priscilla Pizziol)

Two bodies inhabit a single chair. They tell the story of a life shared, sharing their solitude and trying to hold on to lived experiences, worlds and times gone by. This (non-)narrative unfolds in confused fragments: a constant flow of memories—and non-memories—which the two characters try to grasp. Their bodies brush against one another, interlock, support and cling to each other, in an attempt to preserve remembrance, not to lose those small gestures through which they recognise themselves.

The story appears to move through different spaces, but in reality it inhabits only one: the chair. A single object, a point of reference to which the characters return in order to reassemble their past and understand the present. The chair exists, breathes, knows every secret; it becomes a place capable of holding confusion and feeling.

In the performance, as in memory, time is not linear. The unfolding of recollections merges with a present in which gestures, sounds, faces and places blend into a blurred constellation of memories. The work is freely inspired by the dramaturgical inquiry of Florian Zeller’s stage play and film of the same title, The Father.

The project aims to create a narrative experiment in which body, time and space are manipulated: an experience shared by performers and audience within the nostalgic pain of absence. A dialogue between solitudes, yet voiced in unison, striving to escape the loss of the other, of memory, of meaning.