THE ILIAD by Raccontamiunastoria

Don’t miss this performance of Raccontamiunastoria’s provoking and engaging performance of ILIAD- The song of Thetis, an epic storytelling show based on Homer’s Iliad.

This show was created and performed by Paola Balbi and Davide Bardi and directed by Joele Anastasi.  An incendiary retelling of Homer’s Iliad, sung through the voice of Thetis, Achilles’mother. Two performers fluidly shift between gods and mortals, mother and warrior, goddess and lover, masculine and feminine, collapsing the boundaries of gender, power and fate. Love -maternal, erotic, spiritual- collides with the brutal machinery of war. Developed through international residencies and informed by artistic exchange with Lebanese and Palestinian collaborators working amid ongoing conflict, the production refuses nostalgia. Olympus is not distant; it is political, volatile, human. Nearly three millennia later, the epic burns with the same question: who wages war, and who pays the price?

The production was developed through a two-year innovative creative process within the frame of MYTHICA Project 2024/2025, supported by Rome city Council involving international artistic residencies, open door rehearsals with audience involvement and contributions from top international storytellers and young emerging voices. Crucial to the creative process were real-time testimonies from women artists whose lives are presently affected by the ongoing war in the Middle East: Palestinian storyteller Fidaa Ataya and Lebanese storyteller Sarah Kassir. A key contribution came also by Martinican storyteller Valer Egouy, who supported the cast in exploring the psychological and social dynamics of slavery.