I write from the perspective of the ugly, for the ugly, the old, the truck drivers, the frigid, the badly laid, the unlaid,
the hysterical, the warped, for all those excluded from the market of flesh.
And I start from here because it must be clear: I apologize for nothing, I am not here to complain.
– King Kong Theory, Virginie Despentes

“Witch is” is a theatrical project that reflects on the figure of the Witch, considering it as the result of a campaign made in order to criminalize female sexuality and the female body during the development and affirmation of the capitalist society. Even today, women’s bodies are the battleground of political and social struggles; this is why we want to retrace the creation of the Witch as the archetype of the monstrous woman, demonized for being in control of her own body and sexuality. The main sources of this work are the Malleus Maleficarum, written in 1487 by Dominican theologians Heinrich Krämer and Jacob Sprenger, a manual that outlines guidelines for defining who is a witch, how to capture and eliminate her; and Caliban and the Witch by Silvia Federici, an essay revealing how the witch hunt was a true war against women, aimed at annihilating their social power. It was an attack on the resistance that women, particularly poor and peasant women, posed to the expansion of capitalist relations. Witches were all those women who did not fit a criterion of “normality” and who exercised their sexuality outside the boundaries of procreation: solitary women, the elderly, beggars, midwives, healers, prostitutes, adulterers, women who aborted or practiced abortion.

For us, the Witch is not just a figure but a place where history, folklore, victims and perpetrators meet. Three actresses on stage have little more than their bodies and voices to make “things happen.” They create from nothing through what they say, as only theatre (and magic) allows. They are witches. Are they witches?
The performance inhabits three perspectives: that of the inquisitors, of women accused of witchcraft, and finally, of women who inhabit our present and reflect on their bodies and their relationship with them. The word is explored in all its expressive and sound possibilities: it becomes poetry, rock song, nursery rhyme, magic formula, confession, instrument of torture.


The actresses play, sing and dance, creating small ritual moments to tell not one story but multiple stories. Fragments, pieces of a puzzle that, rather than completing a single portrait of the Witch, shed light on the missing pieces. Because for us, the Witch is what is no longer there or is censored. The Witch is what remains after the pyre: the stench, the ash, the judgment, the daze, the echo of a scream in the ears, the fear that, sooner or later, it could happen to us.


project by Landi/Mignemi/Paris
dramaturgy by Francesca Mignemi
directed by Virginia Landi
with Giorgia Iolanda Barsotti, Eleonora Paris, Cristiana Tramparulo
costumes by Rossana Gea Cavallo
music and sound design by Andrea Centonza
light design Laura De Bernardis
sound technician Brando Nencini
with the support of the Toscana Armunia-CapoTrave/Kilowatt Residence Center and Z.I.A. – Zona Indipendente Artistica

production Teatro delle Donne – National Center for Dramaturgy

finalist project at the Under 35 Directors competition of the Venice Theatre Biennale 2022


duration 55′

TEATRO DELLE DONNE – National Centre for Playwriting is a centre for contemporary playwriting focused on showcasing the many voices of the female stage, promoting theatre conceived, written, and created by women. It covers an increasingly broad range of themes, touching on different genres, styles, and languages, and is undoubtedly responsible for some of the most interesting and innovative developments in new playwriting and theatre-making today. Teatro delle Donne has been at the forefront of creating a centre for dramatic production, supported by an archive of over 1000 catalogued works by female playwrights. It manages several historic theatres that have been restored in Tuscany. Since June 2022, its headquarters have been located at the historic Teatro Goldoni in Florence.


LANDI/MIGNEMI/PARIS Since 2022, Teatro delle Donne has supported and produced the projects of the Landi/Mignemi/Paris trio, founded in Milan in 2018 through the collaboration between Virginia Landi, director; Francesca Mignemi, playwright; and Eleonora Paris, playwright and performer. After graduating in Directing and Playwriting from the Paolo Grassi Theatre School in Milan, Virginia, Francesca, and Eleonora decided to work together, driven by the urgency to address social and political issues, using a collective writing process and experimenting with different artistic languages. Central to their works is the issue of gender, explored from an intersectional transfeminist perspective, with a particular focus on the female political body and its distortions and categorizations. In 2020, they created Due volte Tito – Surviving the Tragedy, a reimagining of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus. The production won the “Performing Arts Under 40” support grant from ERT-Emilia Romagna Teatro Fondazione. Their second show, Witch is, premiered in Florence in 2023 and was finalist in the “Directors Under 35” competition at the 2022 Venice Biennale Theatre. Both shows are produced by Teatro delle Donne.