Digging in the DustDialogue between man and woman by Saverio La Ruina.

Dust. Dialogue between man and woman is a play by playwright, actor, and stage director Saverio La Ruina. It represents the third part of a triptych – alongside the monologues Dissonorata and La Borto – that examines gender relations and violence against women. Unlike the first two plays, the violence depicted in the ten dialogue scenes of Dust is not primarily physical but rather psychological and verbal. Yet, within a couple’s relationship, a daily existence marked by subtle and persistent domination, by sharp words that wound – ephemeral as the dust from which the play takes its title – can be equally tragic. Like dust, these words envelop and confound the woman, undermining her certainties and dismantling her identity.This study seeks to demonstrate how the gradual disintegration into dust of the romantic relationship is enacted through the exhausting repetition not only of the characters’ dialogues but also of a static visual situation, unchanging and self-replicating. In shifting from monologue to drama, La Ruina compels the audience to witness something they would rather not see, Exposing—without any form of sublimation—the tragic core of the play in all its raw and unsettling essence