They called them “sos laribiancos”, those with white lips: it was the distinctive, unmistakable sign of the poor of Arasolè, a small village in Sardinia, bordering the forests of Goceano. Sos laribiancos were immediately recognizable: they ate little meat, few carbohydrates, few proteins… they ate too little. The show was born from a deep interest and consideration for the work of Francesco Masala. «On several occasions the poet-writer from Nughedu San Nicolò expressed to me the desire to see the theatrical text Sos laribiancos on stage, in the Sardinian Logudorese version.… and if instead of a faithful staging, I tried to narrate the story?» Thus was born a story that refers both to this novel and to other works by Masala where Culubiancu, Mammutone, Tric Trac and the other laribiancos from Arasolè appear repeatedly, having left on a cattle car one sunny afternoon in 1940 to go to war.
from the novel Those with White Lips by Francesco Masala
