Coming to Fringe World 2006 will be The SoccerActress. A fierce solo show blending autobiographical storytelling, character comedy and freestyle soccer.
The show is written and performed by Lucia Mallardi, a Berlin-based Italian former semi-professional soccer player turned street artist and then actress and comedian.
The show is descried as a powerful one-woman drama-comedy show that is poetic, conceptual, physical and emotionally raw.
Through juggling balls and juggling life, Mallardi explores her journey as a woman torn between soccer stadiums, street performances around the world, and theatre stages – between societal expectations and burning artistic drive.
The show breaks stereotypes, spins the ball and the narrative, and reclaims space: both on the field and in life. Lucia Mallardi uses the soccer ball not only as a symbol of discipline and power but as a living instrument of expression – blending movement, rhythm, and languages to tackle gender politics, cultural identity, and the beauty of athleticism as an art form.
Speaking about the show Mallardi said it was about combatting discrimination and marginalisation.
“I deeply believe in the social mission of my work and I believe that Soccer can serve as a fundamental means of combatting all forms of discrimination and marginalisation – be it racial, gender-based, related to sexual orientation, or inequality in any form. Put a ball in the center of the field and we are all the same: children playing and chasing a ball!”
Mallardi first created this show as a 10-minute monologue titled La CalciAttrice (The SoccerActress in English) in 2018. Her performance at Teatro Le Sedie in Rome earned her dates for a one-hour version the following season.
Since then, she hasn’t looked back, with further performances at the prestigious Piccolo Teatro di Milano, in Naples, in Berlin (in a German version), and in Genoa. She recently performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
The show then traveled to the United Solo Theatre Festival in New York, she reinforced the show’s global
momentum with a deeper, more layered version, which will also be presented at Fringe World at the Old Mill Theatre in South Perth.
Along the way the show has gotten some rave reviews with Broadway Baby saying it was “A charming fusion of comedy, drama, storytelling and movement.”
Tickets for the Perth season are on sale now.
