Teatro Tomasini - Clusone · 21:00
Born in Voghera, 1990. Alpine soldier, 8th Regiment. Afghanistan, 18 January 2011.
Luca Barisonzi had gone to Afghanistan to do his job. At the Bala Murghab outpost he had discovered — as those who truly leave always do — what really matters: biscuits shared with local children, girls attending school for the first time, a quiet presence in a devastated place. Meaning, in other words, found only when you stop looking for it.
On 18 January 2011, all of this stopped in a matter of seconds. From that day, Luca had to learn again — not to walk, but something harder: who to be. He climbed the Margherita Hut at 4,556 metres, had a daughter named Bianca, trains with the Italian Military Sports Group for Paralympic air rifle shooting. And he travels Italy telling his story — not because he feels like a hero, but for exactly the opposite reason.
World premiere on 31 October 2026 at Teatro Tomasini in Clusone, commissioned by the Alpini Section of Clusone.
"I'm not a hero. I only did my duty."
Luca Barisonzi says it himself, with the restraint that is the hardest thing to learn. The show starts there — from his own words, those of his books, nothing rewritten, nothing embellished. Set against them: voices from a hundred years earlier, alpine soldiers writing similar letters from the front — the same language of the body, the same rupture, the same waiting. And holding it all together, Tolkien — not as an opening quote but as a key: the weight that falls on those who did not choose it, and the question of what to do with the time that is given. Text and direction: Mauro Ghilardini. With Mauro Ghilardini and Francesco Maffeis.
Visual study
AI render of the stage concept: backlit screen at centre, two musicians on either side, actor downstage. Final staging is in development.
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