Le Lasagne della nonna

04 Feb '26 to 05 Feb '26

Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne / Numero23Prod / Claire de Ribaupierre / Massimo Furlan (CH)

How do minority groups balance multiple identities in a new environment? In Le Lasagne della nonna, director Massimo Furlan and dramaturg Claire de Ribaupierre take you on a journey from Italy to Switzerland through the eyes of female immigrants. Their stories intertwine with the experiences of queer individuals in our society. What does integration do to who we are?

Festival Brandhaarden

Location ITA

Duration 90 minutes

Genre Theatre

Language French and Italian

Subtitles English and Dutch

The Bookshop Aftertalk

Le Lasagne della nonna

In Les Italiens, Massimo Furlan invited Italian immigrants to share their memories and dreams—caught between their homeland, Italy, which they left in the 1960s, and modern Switzerland, which they helped build. Today, Le Lasagne della nonna focuses on the lives of women who arrived during those same years. What place have they found in Switzerland? How have they managed to integrate?

Giuseppina, Rita, Lucia, and Anna had to learn French as they went. They raised their children, and later their grandchildren. They worked their entire lives. On stage, these grandmothers meet two young men, not yet thirty, whose histories and experiences differ greatly from theirs, yet who also grapple with questions of cultural blending and multiple identities. Davide, Giuseppina’s grandson, fled his birthplace due to a lack of tolerance toward his homosexuality. And then there is Ali Lamaadli, who comes from elsewhere—much farther away—from another culture, with a different language and religion. They share the same sense of uprootedness and the ongoing search for a place to inhabit, build, and invent.

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On stage, they speak of gestures and knowledge, distant yet vivid traditions like cooking and dancing, and more contemporary practices such as cross-dressing or drag. They each embody a true cultural fusion, multiple identities, and different eras. They share the same uprootedness, a continuous search for a place to inhabit, build, and invent.

These grandmothers were once young women, born in Italy at the end of the war. On stage, they meet two young men, not yet thirty, with very different histories and experiences, yet who also question their roots.

Together, they will speak about their situation, their experience of being “foreign,” and how that has evolved over time. They will share what family means to them, how they are received, and where their political engagement lies. On stage, we will attempt to create a community that explores what it means to be an actor or actress, what it is to dance in public, and to speak from your own perspective. All these simple, essential stories speak to today’s world and its challenges—about tolerance, violence, fear of the other, but also about the power of connection—and they are shared with the audience.

Massimo Furlan

Massimo Furlan was born and lives in Lausanne. In 2003, he founded the company Numero23Prod and began developing theatre and performance art. His work stems from his personal story—as a child of Italian descent, born in Switzerland in the mid-1960s. Through scenic and visual proposals that blend burlesque and philosophy, poetry and popular aesthetics, he seeks to tap into the collective memory of an entire generation.

He draws on his childhood and youthful dreams, examples and anecdotes—especially those that left a deep impression on him and whose intensity still amazes him today. In his projects, he invites dancers and other performers on stage to create what he calls “long images”: sequences that resemble cinema and installation art.

Together with Claire de Ribaupierre, he also designs protocols and unique speech devices for site-specific projects such as Madre, Blue Tired Heroes, and Les Héros de la pensée.

Claire de Ribaupierre

Claire de Ribaupierre, born in 1968 in Lausanne, studied literature and earned a doctorate in contemporary literature. Her research spans anthropology, visual culture, and literature. From 2008 to 2010, supported by the Swiss National Fund, she worked as a researcher on artistic practices in archives and on a project exploring improvisation across various art, theatre, and music schools.

She currently teaches methodology, dramaturgy, and anthropology at La Manufacture–Haute école des arts de la scène, within the bachelor programs in theatre and dance. In 2017, her work took on a documentary dimension, involving non-professional actors—village residents from the Basque Country for the project Hospitalités (2017), or emigrants for Les Italiens (2019). This approach, which questions who stands on stage and who tells the story, continues in projects such as Avec l’animal (2022), Le lasagne della Nonna (2023), and De la terre (2024), which explore our relationship with the environment, animals, gestures, and skills.

4 February at 21:30 - The Bookshop

Aftertalk

After Le Lasagne della nonna, the creators will engage in a conversation with the audience. Together, we will pause to reflect on the stories of migration, family, and cultural blending that come to life in the performance. How did you experience the encounter on stage? Do you recognize this scene in real life?

This post-show talk offers space to ask questions, share memories, and reflect together on themes such as identity, integration, and connection. It is an invitation to exchange—where personal stories and shared experiences come together.

Please note: this conversation will be held in English.

Brandhaarden

Brandhaarden is an international theatre festival that brings productions by remarkable theatre makers from abroad to Amsterdam. The festival offers a unique focus on one artist, company, writer, region, or theme. This year, we shine the spotlight on Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, a house at the intersection of individual experience and collective concerns. It creates a space where today’s global themes resonate, are shared, and questioned. In a world that is increasingly polarized, Théâtre Vidy manages to touch a nerve and sharpen the audience’s critical gaze.

In previous editions, we highlighted directors such as Katie Mitchell, Milo Rau, and the collective Rimini Protokoll; writer Édouard Louis; the Southern European region (Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece); and city theatres like Münchner Kammerspiele, Volksbühne Berlin, and Peter Brook’s Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord.