The artistic duo formed by actress Diana Höbel and musician Federico Nicoletta is set to bring a powerful, emotionally charged performance to Sydney. On 29 January, at the Italian Cultural Institute, they will present “Gerarchia e privilegio”, a dramatic reading accompanied by original music composed by Claudio Rastelli. The work draws entirely from writings by Primo Levi and Hermann Langbein, offering an unflinching view of life inside the concentration camps.
The performance weaves together essays, articles, and reviews written by Levi, constructing a complex reflection on the internal mechanisms of the camps, places of absolute horror yet governed by a perverse and meticulous system. Through Levi’s words, the piece examines the dynamics of fear, the rigid hierarchies that shaped daily survival, and the inversion of the moral order that turned human beings into means rather than ends.
Höbel and Nicoletta’s interpretation seeks to render the experience from within, using voice and music to evoke the psychological landscape of the survivors’ accounts. The production aims not only to commemorate the victims but also to highlight the disturbing relevance of those “principles” in today’s societies.