Antonella Fittipaldi is an Italian playwright who has been making theatre for twenty years, and after being inspired by British theatre, decided that it was time to make her UK debut, holding the UK premiere at Studio Beyond in Liverpool,
Scaleno (an Italian word meaning ‘scalene’ or ‘unequal’) refers to Fittipaldi’s character’s one body, with three voices. Fittipaldi has written this play to explore the mental health of a woman aged forty-one who struggles to exist in the present. Three voices possess her, tugging her in different directions, testing her ability to exist and to move forward with her life. Each voice has a different language, the Neapolitan voice is hard, loud and unforgiving, the Italian voice is the one that the world sees where she masks her underlying torment, and the English language voice comes from an Alexa type AI and has no filter when offering its advice to her.
At the root of her struggles are her relationships with other people, beginning in her childhood she had traumatic relationships, which later reflected in her ability to live in reality. Directed by Rossella Cabbiddu, Fittipaldi is the lone performer, and presents an expressive, intentional play, brimming with emotional intelligence. The idea of the artificial intelligence English speaking counsellor-type chatbot adds a layer to the lonely figure on the stage. The advice lacks human compassion, but Fittipaldi’s character is not reaching out to other humans but uses this AI to give her guidance.
In a world where we have never been so connected, this play highlights the dilemma that many people face, more relationships failing, singledom is more attractive, and our heads look down into our phone instead of connecting with real people. The idea of this play has come from a personal place for Fittipaldi, and it is an interesting concept to use the three languages to portray the different aspects of the character’s personality. The staging was simple and allowed free movement as the character used physical movement to demonstrate her state of mind.
Whilst I love the idea of the play, and the storyline is interesting and challenging, and Fittipaldi’s linguistic skills are to be applauded, it did sometimes feel that switching between the Italian and Neapolitan language were difficult to perceive to our English ears. There was a difference in tone of voice, but not always enough for an untrained ear to detect. Given that this is key to the success of the play, working on this element would help if the intention is to continue to present the play to an English audience. The surtitles were a great assistance but were sometimes blocked by the performer.
‘Scaleno’ is an interesting play, by an accomplished writer and performer, but may need a little more work for the English audience.
The play runs from the 15th-17th October 2026 at Studio Beyond as a part of the Liverpool Fringe Festival. To book tickets go to – https://shows.thestudiobeyond.co.uk/shows/scaleno
Reviewer: Caroline Worswick
Reviewed: 15th October 2026
Theatre Muse UK Rating: ***
