Eco-theater, biodiversity and environmental discourse: the perspective of ecocritical geo-politics. – The objective of this article is to analyse, from an ecocritical geopolitical perspective, a particular artistic practice, namely eco-theatre, i.e. theatrical performances that aim to convey an environmental message. To this end, a concise historical account of environmental theatre is provided, commencing with Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People (1882), followed by the experimental endeavours of The Diggers (1960s) and of the Reinhabitory The-ater (1970s), culminating in the climate change works of the 2000s and the contemporary proliferation of initiatives. The article then examines the different narrative strategies and suggests what should be analysed in the texts (plot, role of human and non-human characters, relationship with the audience, etc.) in order to grasp the environmental discourse of each text and its potential for creating an affective atmosphere.

La rilevanza sistemica della biodiversità e, di riflesso, le prospettive connesse alla sua progressiva compromissione a seguito delle intense e spesso irreversibili pressioni antropiche contemporanee, costituisce oggi un nodo centrale di riflessione scientifica e politica, che si riflette anche nell’ampio orizzonte simbolico ed espressivo della cultura popolare, attraverso un articolato e polisemico sistema di rappresentazioni.