Winter between 1994 and 1995. The river Arno threatens to overflow the banks, and as a precautionary measure many sandbags are placed all along the river. Meanwhile, Italy and the world (right after the fall of the Berlin wall) are facing quite another overflowing – a metaphorical, cultural, and political one. In short, as Giovanni Guerrieri will put it years later, «the need for sandbags was generally felt».

Therefore, while the departments at the University of Pisa are occupied, just inside the university the Sacchi di Sabbia (in Italian, sandbags) are born: a company, rigorously from both Tuscany and Naples, whose aim is exactly being a bulwark, a form of resistance against any possible overflowing. As Concetta D’Angeli narrates, «the company was born inside university, expressing both its critic soul (a performance by the “Sacchi” was seen as a political act) and the need for theatre, so widespread and frustrated among the young in our universities». The Sacchi start representing a comic and farcical theatre, such as that of the Commedia dell’Arte, an incessant smirk, in a Bohemian and exuberant relationship with Italy’s traditional culture, and more – from Totò to Monty Pythons, up to Carmelo Bene.

In a few years, the company start dominating both Pisa (in 2001 they become resident company in the small and gorgeous church of Sant’Andrea Forisportam) and Italy: in 2002 Orfeo debuts in Santarcangelo and gets a nomination the Ubu awards, and in 2008 Sandokan wins the Ubu award, for a «vivid and freshly creative and provocative writing», pinnacle of an activity of «sincere, long, and passionate research».

Born inside university, the Sacchi di Sabbia are now one of the strangest and most interesting theatre groups in Italy. It’s exactly their trajectory, from university to theatre, that makes them particularly suited to opening FAcT: in a conversation with Concetta D’Angeli, they will revisit the main points of their career, trying to understand how it is possible to mix research, comedy, and theatre.

In a historic moment when we risk a new overflowing, the need for sandbags is felt once again: as Goffredo Fofi puts it, the Sacchi di Sabbia «know what grace is, but they also know that we are surrounded by discourtesy, bad grace, and disgrace, and that freedom – dreaming, flying – is by this point unattainable».