Rereading the quintessential classic of Italian literature, rediscovering an unexpected feminist streak: this is " Geltrude, Lucia and the Others ", a show written and performed by Eleonora Mazzoni and freely adapted from her " Il cuore è un guazzabuglio " (Einaudi, 2023). A theatrical reading that – thanks to Cedac Sardegna – also arrives at the Massimo in Cagliari with two matinees on Thursday 26th and Friday 27th , both scheduled for 11:30 am .

Directed by Simonetta Solder in a 369 Gradi production, "Geltrude, Lucia and the Others" is dedicated to the women born from the pen of Manzoni : and the author himself is shown from a new perspective, no longer in the traditional image of the austere and sad man—as handed down to us by the famous portrait by Francisco Hayez—but as a dynamic, restless, free, and fundamentally revolutionary man in art as well as in life. A new light on his life, revealed precisely thanks to the three most significant female characters of "The Betrothed."

The Nun of Monza, Lucia, and Cecilia's mother are the three fictional figures intertwined with the real women in Manzoni's life, Giulia Beccaria and Enrichetta Blondel , against the backdrop of a continent shaken by uprisings, restorations, plots, and persecutions. Thus, the author's complexity emerges: an ironic conversationalist, yet ambitious and passionate, yet fragile and rebellious, never swayed by his faith, but rather, always loyal to the fight for freedom and his political commitment to the nation , even to the point of the nervous breakdowns that plagued him throughout his life.

And finally, the surprising ability to stage a rich and varied female universe is highlighted, an achievement that is by no means a given when dealing with male writers, and, moreover, from the nineteenth century. With the special participation of as a voice-over in dialogue with Mazzoni, the lighting is by , while the sound is by .