ED RECOVERY

Direction: LIA LOCATELLI

Dramaturgy: LIA LOCATELLI

Actors: LIA LOCATELLI, CATERINA ROSSI dancer

Other credits: Technical Direction: Niccolò Maggio

Key words: contemporaneo, DCA, Edrecovery, teatro, danza

Production: M.ART.E

Year of production: 2023

Theatrical genre: Prose Dance Performance

ED Recovery is an immersive performance piece — a tapestry of authentic testimonies from young people living with anorexia and bulimia. It gives voice to those who experience the illness first-hand and fight it daily. The dramaturgy stems from the research of director and performer Lia Locatelli, who spent a year collecting the stories of young patients in the child neuropsychiatry ward of Varese.The production lends its stage to real voices — an honest and moving account in which the illness itself speaks: an obsessive, tragic presence, yet one from which recovery is possible. Written, directed, and performed by Lia Locatelli, with choreography by Caterina Rossi and technical direction by Niccolò Maggio, ED Recovery has stirred consciences and awakened dormant sensitivities. Critics, including Broadway Baby, have praised it as “a courageous performance, filled with genuine emotion, shedding light on the complex and harrowing nature of eating disorders.” Conceived as an immersive installation, the performance intertwines physical acting with innovative audio technologies that heighten the sensory experience. Techniques such as voice-over and ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) are employed to evoke intimacy and relaxation. Custom-composed sounds, music, and video projections further enrich this perceptual dimension. Choreographic interludes punctuate the narrative rhythm, distilling emotions and states of mind into movement and transforming moments of tension into catharsis. On stage, mental illness takes on both voice and body, highlighting the urgent need to distinguish the condition from the individual who endures it. The diversity of languages and media used becomes a bridge — a means to approach, with authenticity, the humanity behind wounded yet living bodies. Locatelli’s work also explores the dramaturgy of half-light: here, light and shadow are protagonists in their own right. Light does not represent the illness — it cannot illuminate it directly — which is why the performer never steps fully into it. Light is human life itself. At its core, ED Recovery is a theatrical act of awareness, addressing the rise in eating disorders since the pandemic, a crisis often exacerbated by social media spaces that glorify food control as a false form of calm or care. The piece speaks to everyone, but most powerfully to young audiences — provocative, raw, and unflinchingly real. It is an unheard cry — and the voices are theirs. The title references the hashtag #EatingDisorderRecovery, used online by those undergoing life-saving treatment or walking the path toward healing. The performance, suitable for audiences aged 12 and above, can be staged in both theatres and non-traditional venues. Running time: 60 minutes.