Beyond the bars of prison and of the mind

An unusual spectacle in a completely anomalous setting: the prison of Paliano, located in the Italian Province of Frosinone. Even the theatrical company that staged the show “Music within ... assonance and dissonance” is atypical. It’s made up of the prison wardens and detainees in the Ciociaria Institute, and young men with psychiatric disorders from the “Casa Johnny & Mary” rehabilitation community. About 30 performers, none professional, gave the spectators admitted to the great hall known as the “Unity of Italy”, in the ancient Colonna fortress, a one-of-a-kind afternoon, transporting them on the thread of emotions that people of different cultures, backgrounds and moods share. The directors call it integrated theatre. Here, the diversity of people with disabilities and limitations is not cancelled out or repressed but accepted as ...