The name Pasqua Selis Zau, known as Paskedda Zau, will mean nothing to some. Yet she is the commoner from Nuoro, mother, widow, of ten children, who on April 26, 1868 unleashed the popular uprising against the effects of the Legge delle Chiudende (the legislative provision issued in 1820 during the Savoy domination in Sardinia, which authorized the enclosure of lands that until then had traditionally been considered collective property, effectively introducing private property), when farmers and shepherds protested against the will of the Nuoro City Council to privatize public lands. That revolt has gone down in history as “Su Connottu”, from the cry raised by Paskedda, “A su connottu, torramus a su connottu!”, to the “known”, to the custom. In Ruju’s work, later enriched by the ballads of Francesco Masala and rewritten for the stage by the director Gianfranco Mazzoni, the narration is entrusted mainly to men.
In the female story conceived by Crogiuolo, the adapted text will be read by Rita Atzeri, Maria Grazia Bodio, Isella Orchis, two historic actresses of the Teatro di Sardegna, and Gisella Vacca: “An attempt, without distorting the contents of the narration, to restore balance to the story, at least on the interpretative level of the voices on stage”, specifies Atzeri.
