The farmer is gruff but kind— giving Capa bandages and food.  The wheels of the long night they share is oiled by card games, wine and later hard stuff from Capa’s flask.  Eventually, the peasant farmer falls dead asleep, with Capa’s act of covering him with a blanket suggesting a gentle fondness had developed.

A Sicilian peasant farmer (played by Greg Horton) had told men from his village to bring the injured man who had parachuted into a tree to his home.  This injured man is war photographer Robert Capa (played by Ben Natan), long before his photography earned accolades and awards.  Capa is actually down on his luck, working as a freelance photographer, hoping to use  his war photos to land a better gig.

During the long night’s conversation, the large gulf between their human experiences peels away the top layers to let us meet the souls underneath. The farmer has already lost one son in the war, he doesn’t know if the second is lost to him as well.  He believes in the land— in fear of God, moderation, sobriety and the wisdom that nature brings.  His family has been broken by his sons’ quest for a fast life — like Capa’s world —  that he finds meaningless. All around him there are guns and destruction. The war has made Sicily into hell—- pain on top of pain.

Capa also carries great pain, which he comes to share with the farmer— a private hell we gather he rarely shares with anyone. (Spoiler Alert) But it is the farmer’s insistence that Capa take his photo as a portrait of war’s toll on innocent victims that is the image emblazoned in our thoughts, and takeaway from the play.

Circa Spring 2026, for many Americans, The Rule of Thirds gives us flashes of imagining the mourners, dead and dispossessed in Iran, Lebanon, Gaza, and beyond.

Meet the 2025 In Scena Theater Competition Award-winning Playwright’s Grandfather

You too might be drawn to this play by the Robert Capa name and reputation, but instead find the peasant farmer’s character animating your imagination and take-away from the performance.  We relate to this everyman caught in the wheels of war deeply.  Though The Rule of Thirds is a WWII story,  it could be a story of now also, or anywhere and any time wars render the lives of bystanders into hell.

In a quick post- performance conversation with Neapolitan playwright Marco de Simone, we learn that in creating the peasant farmer character he drew heavily from knowing his own grandfather, and what the realities were for poor farmers in the South of Italy.  De Simone knows the deep devotion to family and a simple way of life that sustained generations of Southern Italy farmers through many hardships. You too might be touched by how De Simone’s pen has drawn a deeply loving portrait of his grandfather in his imagined story.

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Editor’s Note:  Read prior Picture This Post stories about peasant life in Southern Italy—

MATERA PEASANT MUSEUM Review – History Unpacked from Attic Trunks

And

MATERA TOURS with Tour Guide Amy Weideman Review – Looking Back Over 7500 Years

WHEN:

April 22 – May 15, 2026

WHERE:

The Tank
312 W 36th St.
New York, NY 10018

TICKETS:

$20+

For more information and tickets visit the In Scena! Italian Theater Festival website.

Photos: Montgomery Sutton

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