The author’s notes

“For Mario Rigoni writing was an antibody against inhumanity. Well, what I am maybe looking after is an antibody against the inhumanity of the spectator’s condition. Thinking to be a spectator of a far war is an illusion, because when you think being that you are already a victim without knowing. Without conscience of the fact you cannot stay apart, as if you remove this from your life you are already slipping into loss. I find myself in that desire of not giving up, which was Rigoni’s and his Alpini’s. Although not as an act of heroism, he was marching in the snow carrying the tremendous burden of his weapons. The Red Army’s flyers advised: Italians give up, you are four thousand kilometres from home. Who was giving up to reality’s evidence, to his tiredness; who was giving up his weapons, renounced in oiling, cleaning and making them work, was at the end. I think democracy is our weapon, which needs to be set on point and took care after.
The Sergeant is neither a piece of work denouncing something nor a medicine for the soul, because I think theatre could neither be therapy nor antidote. I think there’s a possibility to draw experience, and this deserves as memory and training to confront better some issues. Theatre is maybe a training, an instruction.”
Marco Paolini – November 2004