Prisma: Relationships, Metamorphosis and Queerness from Ovidio and Vivinetto to the Urciuolo-Bessegato’s script

Abstract

The series Prisma (Prism) is an Italian production launched in 2022 via Amazon Prime Video (Cross Productions). It is loosely inspired by the poetry collection Dolore minimo (Minimal Suffering, 2018) by Giovanna Cristina Vivinetto. The four-handed screenplay has been authored by Alice Urciuolo and Ludovico Bessegato, who is also the director, and adopts a perspective on the current adolescent people without bias nor stereotypes. The queerness in particular is not presented as a theme. Yet it pervades the relations among characters as a fact of life. Sexual orientation, gender identity and transitioning enrich the plot with literary references both to Vivinetto’s poetry and to a flourishing and sometimes forgotten tradition dating back to Ovid’s Metamorphoses and to ancient Greek mythology. The essay examines the poetical substance of Prisma’s screenplay and soundtrack, the queer allure of several scenes and the overall effects, in the wake of Bessegato’s other teen drama Skam Italia (launched in 2018).