On Tuesday, October 7 at 8:30 p.m., the Alliance Française de Lyon welcomes J’attends de tes nouvelles / Aspetto tue notizie, a performance written and performed by Claudio Colangelo.
An intimate and moving play inspired by twelve years of correspondence between a son who left home to build a life far from his family and his parents who remained in southern Italy.
Twelve years of letters… and hardly any replies
At 18, Claudio leaves Lanciano, a small town in the Abruzzo region, to discover a new life. His parents, Nicola and Linda, remain in Italy and write to him regularly.
For twelve years, the letters pile up. His mother writes about her daily life, filled with cooking, prayers and worries. His father offers advice, questions his son’s choices and waits for news from him. Claudio reads the letters… but rarely replies.
From this one-sided correspondence comes J’attends de tes nouvelles / Aspetto tue notizie, an autobiographical performance in which Claudio Colangelo brings three characters to life: himself, his mother and his father.
One family, three characters, 200 letters
On stage, a few letters hanging from a clothesline, an old wooden chair and a single actor are enough to bring an entire family to life.
Claudio Colangelo takes on the roles of the son, the “mamma” and the father. Through everyday gestures, memories and the words contained in the letters, the characters gradually emerge and tell, with humour and tenderness, a deeply personal family story.
Over the years, the son’s perspective on his parents changes. What once seemed burdensome or irritating gradually reveals something else: worry, awkwardness, expectations, fears and, above all, love.
The performance thus becomes a tribute to parents, but also to writing and to the letters that allow a bond to endure despite distance.
Leaving to find yourself… and reconnecting with your roots
At the heart of this family story lies a more universal question: how do we find our place between the desire to leave and the need to remain connected to our roots?
After leaving Italy, Claudio seeks to build a life of his own. Theatre gradually becomes his guiding thread, taking him from city to city and eventually to Paris. Years later, after becoming a father himself, he rediscovers his parents’ letters and reads them in a different light.
Time has passed. The words are the same, but their meaning has changed.
With J’attends de tes nouvelles, Claudio Colangelo shares an intimate story that resonates with our own memories, our families and those sometimes complicated relationships in which love is not always expressed in the way we might expect.
A performance in French and Italian
The title J’attends de tes nouvelles – Aspetto tue notizie also reflects the Italian roots of the story. The letters and dialogue bring Italian alongside French, in a story where language itself becomes a link between generations, cultures and places.
An invitation to discover a sensitive, funny and deeply human performance, where a handful of letters are enough to bring an entire life back to the surface.
J’attends de tes nouvelles / Aspetto tue notizie
📍 Alliance Française de Lyon
11 rue Pierre Bourdan, 69003 Lyon
📅 Tuesday, October 7, 2026
🕣 8:30 p.m.
⏱️ Running time: 1 hour 5 minutes
