Ghosts
based on the texts of Edith Wharton
translated by Chiara Lagani (Einaudi)
music, sound design, and sound direction by Luigi Ceccarelli
direction, sets, and lighting by Luigi Noah De Angelis
drama and costumes by Chiara Lagani
performers: Andrea Argentieri and Chiara Lagani
musical contributions:
Gianni Trovalusci (flutes)
Diego Conti (violin)
Paolo Ravaglia (clarinets)
organization and promotion: Marco Molduzzi
administration: Stefano Toma
production: E Production, Ravenna Festival
in collaboration with Fabbrica Europa,
L’arboreto – Teatro Dimora di Mondaino
and Cultural Institutes – Performing Arts of the Republic of San Marino
Premiere:
Ravenna, July 3, 2025, 9:00 pm
Ravenna Festival – Teatro Alighieri
Florence, October 2, 2025
Fabbrica Europa Festival, Teatro Cantiere Florida
Bevagna (Pg), October 12, 2025
Teatro Torti – Factory Festival
San Marino Republic, November 11, 2025
Teatro Titano
Vicenza, January 30, 2026
Teatro Astra
The ghost, however, should not be allowed to forget that its only chance of survival lies precisely in the stories of those who have encountered it, whether in reality or in fantasy, and perhaps preferably in the latter. For a ghost, it is far better to be vividly imagined than monotonously “experienced,” and no one knows better than a ghost how difficult it is to be described in words that are both obscure and transparent.
Edith Wharton, Ghosts
What is a ghost? This is the question Edith Wharton asks in her latest collection of short stories, appropriately titled Ghosts. The ghost is a shadow, an essence, a foreign figure that inspires fear because it comes from an unknown world or a distant time. The ghost connects us to the threshold, to death, but also to the deepest part of ourselves.
In a pure, evocative, supernatural environment, made of sounds, lights, and shadows, a man and a woman appear, disappear: they embody, in turn, the evanescent characters of the five ghostly stories they will gradually tell us.
A suicidal woman finds herself in the afterlife. The caretaker asks her what has made her life so unbearable. “A husband deaf to my needs,” she replies. But now things will change; the woman is destined for a perfectly happy love. But is this what she really wants?
A young man visits an older acquaintance. Arriving at the remote village where she lives, just before he sees her, he suddenly remembers hearing that the woman had fallen seriously ill and then died. Yet the woman appears before him, and the boy, terrified though he is, speaks to her at length. Who is she really?
A couple obsessed with ghosts buys a house inhabited by a spirit reluctant to reveal itself. Their lives are consumed by the frantic wait for the specter, but who and what are they really waiting for?
Then there is a couple worn down by time, habit, and the regret of never having had children. They have come to hate each other. One evening, while they are watching television, something terrible and unexpected happens. Is the arcane presence appearing in their home a dream, a hallucination, or reality?
A married couple return home after a long stay in another city. He doesn’t have long to live; he’s ill, and she can’t wait to reach their family for comfort. During the train ride, however, the man dies. The woman, gripped by the irrational terror of being forced off the train and finding herself alone in an unfamiliar country with her beloved husband’s body, having to deal with all the necessary bureaucratic formalities, decides to hide his death from the other passengers. Will she succeed in completing her purpose and that nightmarish journey?
Amid explosive apparitions, dramatic twists, and subtle anxieties, the universe of Edith Wharton, the author of these stories, opens up before us and questions the meaning of endings, nostalgia, regret, remorse, fear, and love for the invisible.
