L'ULTIMO MESSAGGIO

THE PROJECT: The show is the result of an integrated theater training program aimed at minors and young adults (aged 17–25) who are former inmates, serving alternative measures, and/or in various capacities under the care of the U.S.S.M. – Social Service Office for Minors of Rome. The age group of the participants made it possible for specific generational issues to emerge, such as identity, others' expectations, the perception of time, and managing failure. Within this thematic framework, drawing from improvisations and shared suggestions, the drammaturgy welcomed and embedded the biographical contributions of the participants around the idea of a bizarre course to learn how to disappear, or “evaporate”—a practice that is already dramatically customary in Japan—in order to permanently erase one's past and build a new identity. One might decide to escape from a disadvantaged social or family context, or to evade the overexposure caused by social media usage. Whatever the initial reasons, the Master, drawing on his years of experience in "disappearances" and supported by his special assistants, has an infallible method for teaching how to vanish without a trace. But is this really his goal? Blending irony, tension, and moments of intense collective poetry, the show speaks to the universal need to assert or reinvent oneself without losing who one truly is. The final message is also a musical bridge between the inside and the outside. During the creative process, theatrical language met Rap music, enriching the participants' forms of expression and welcoming into the work the voices of those who are still detained. This was made possible thanks to the collaboration of the staff from the Rap Music Workshop conducted by CCO - Crisi Come Opportunità at the IPM Casal del Marmo in Rome and through meetings with the young female inmates of the IPM’s Female Section. It is thus a choral and contemporary journey to reflect on the transformative power of the Arts in constructing our identities.