Hamburg to host stage performance on Italian migration

Hamburg - The stories of Italian migrants in Germany have been composed into a stage play that will debut with performances at Hamburg's St. Pauli Theatre on 5 and 6 June. The title of the drama is "Amara terra mia", and it is the second work created by Matteo Marsan, Dania Hohmann and Ulrich Walle. The project was done within the initiative "memory theatre", whose first work, "Albicocche rose", was on the 1944 massacre by German soldiers at San Gusme.

The stage play will be performed in two languages and will offer subtitles in German when Italian is used. It is part of the "Theater der Welt"and will include the participation of Adriana Altaras e Daniela Morozzi. In the 50s and 60s, Italy could not afford to provide a livelihood to every one of its inhabitants. In 1955, the government negotiated contracts with other countries to offer job opportunities to its citizens, including Germany. After "the big chill" of February 1956, which caused the death of all olive trees and vineyards, many young Italians moved up north to Milan and even to Germany. Several of them ended up working in the mines or in factories such as Volkswagen.

These were the first Italian migrants to have sought jobs in Germany after WWII. They were called 'Gastarbeiter', and soon imported their eating habits and cuisine to Germany. The performance is based on interviews with representatives from this first generation that departed to live in Germany. The main themes are: the departure; leaving families back home in Italy; and living in a foreign country, with all the integration issues due to a different language and culture. Agatino Rossi is the main character in the stage play. He lives day to day, meeting the basic conditions for survival. So he departs, together with his brothers, and leaves behind his country, his family, and his homeland to move up north. After many adventures, Agatino finds a job at the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg. He marries a German woman and they have a baby girl named Carla. After 10 years, they break up. During the big oil crisis at the beginning of the 70s, Agatino returns to Italy, where he starts a new family with his girlfriend.

The couple has a baby girl, whose name is Maria Grazia. Yet, he does not stay long in his country of origin, because he feels like an alien in the town where they call him 'The German'. Agatino applies for a job in Germany again and starts commuting back and forth between the two countries, feeling restless and without a homeland. His two families know nothing about the existence of one another until Agatino's death.