La Venexiana is one of the most erotic stories in the history of Italian theatre. Italian director Riccardo Massai, starting from this text composed between 1509 and 1518, has built a strong show, between sexy toys, hot dialogues and without any censorship.

The original plot, a double betrayal, becomes a significant image of our contemporaneity in which toyboys or aesthetic cares mirror our way of life, where sex and look bring us back to the 16th century, also called the “erotic century”.

In the staging of Riccardo Massai, Ronconi’s assistant director at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan, the inevitable funny consequences of the situation are mixed with a macabre and licentious reading that reveals how a text symbol of sixteenth-century dramaturgy can become a mirror of our time, a reflection on aesthetic cares, on violence against women, on the power of money.

The theatrical play is taken to the limit as the characters of the two ladies and the two servants are played by only two actresses, to suggest that the relationship between subjection and masochism reflects from one to another in an endless alternation.

with Simona Arrighi, Sandra Garuglieri, Mattia Rigatti, Marco Toloni
costumes: Antonio Musa
light designer: Lucilla Baroni
directed by Riccardo Massai
production: Archètipo/Atto Due