Manuela Mandracchia and Giorgio Colangeli star in Le volpi, a sharp and intense play that alternates irony and drama to portray provincial Italy as a microcosm reflecting power dynamics, desires and individual obsessions.

In the shadows of a dining room, at coffee time on a sunny August Sunday, two minor local politicians meet the daughter of one of them. All around, thoughts are already turning to the sea and holidays, but there are still a few matters to be settled that concern the protagonists of the story.
Over a tray of vegan biscuits, they confess their legitimate appetites and natural interests, agreements are made and broken, and the best way to distribute favours and concessions, service assignments and supposed advantages is decided. Softly, they slip into a self-absolving mechanism whereby it is legitimate to reserve some small personal gain for themselves after having worked so hard in the management of public affairs.
Corruption is precisely this: allowing oneself the space for an imperceptible exception. As Leonardo Sciascia writes in his novel Todo modo: “Big gains make big principles disappear, and small gains make small fanaticisms disappear”.
Le volpi was a finalist for the 2024 Ubu Awards in the category “best new Italian text or playwriting”.