The Body of an American

Dan O’Brien / Jacopo Gassmann

World Premiere

show in production

Palco Sala Teatro

CHF 27–39

Tue 16.02

20:00

Buy

Wed 17.02

20:00

Buy

The Body of an American

Dan O’Brien / Jacopo Gassmann

World Premiere

show in production

Palco Sala Teatro

CHF 27–39

Tue 16.02

20:00

Buy

Wed 17.02

20:00

Buy

Jacopo Gassmann returns to collaborate with the LAC, staging *The Body of an American*, which emerged from a collaboration between American playwright Dan O’Brien and Paul Watson, a Canadian photojournalist who took the famous photograph of the body of American soldier William David Cleveland being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu in 1993.  

How does pain, once transformed into an image, continue to live on beyond the moment it was seen and continue to work within us? Is it still possible, today, to look at it without being numbed?  
Dan O’Brien’s intense and provocative text takes its starting point from a historical moment in which a single, brutal photograph helped change the course of global events. 
Spanning different times and places—from Rwanda to Afghanistan to the Canadian Arctic—the play unfolds as a sweeping, multi-layered narrative, brought to life by powerful theatrical writing. At its core are the ethical and personal consequences of Paul Watson’s photograph, as well as the complex relationship between political upheavals and the experience of trauma in an era saturated with images and information. 
In this award-winning play, O’Brien identifies a turning point in recent history while simultaneously shedding light on deeply personal issues that resonate powerfully in our present.

by

Dan O’Brien 

translation

Enrico Luttmann, Marco Maria Casazza 

directed by

Jacopo Gassmann 

with

Danilo Nigrelli, Paolo Mazzarelli 

sets and costumes 

Paolo Di Benedetto

light

Gianni Staropoli 

sound 

Nicola Sannino   

assistant director

Giulia Bartolini  

set and video assistant

 Iris Da Ruos  

stage manager and chief stagehand

Davide Zanni  

Chief Electrician and Lighting Designer

Filip Marocchi 

sound engineer

Nicola Sannino  

costume designer 

Giulio Morini   

production

LAC Lugano Art and Culture  

in co-production with

Theater of Naples – National Theater, National Theater of Genoa, Theater of Rome – National Theater