'Spettacolo' Lovingly Chronicles A Tuscan Theatrical Tradition In Decline
Once a year, for 51 years, residents of the Tuscan hamlet Monticchielo have staged a play about their lives. A new documentary finds the town's younger generation is losing interest in the practice.
It sounds like an avant-garde theater maven's most cherished dream: Every year a small town writes and stages a topical "autodrama" based on the residents' own experiences. But a Tuscan village's 51st annual spectacle â Spettacolo in Italian â may be the last.
Perhaps it was all downhill from Monticchiello's first play, which recounted
