Tie up the threads of memory, put the pieces back together, retracing facts and protagonists through words and gestures, even when the facts and protagonists belong to what appears to be the largest judicial red herring in the history of the Republic. Cigarette in hand, proud gaze, illuminated by lights and shadows that draw the profile along the walls of the evocative space of the courtyard of Palazzo Calapaj-D’Alcontres, David Coco, in the role of judge Paolo Borsellinogives body and voice to what is meant to be more of an invective than a chronicle of the facts, a request for truth, a narrative designed and structured to turn the spotlight on another story.
“The great lie”, show written and directed by Claudio Favafor the production of Terrestrial Nutrients, after his debut at the Tindari Festival he landed in Messinafor two sold-out replicas that concluded the first part of the XII edition of Courtyard Theater Festival of Messina, directed by Roberto Zorn Bonaventura, a precious appointment for the city summer, capable of combining meeting, sharing, reflection thanks to the theater and the strength of contemporary dramaturgy.
The explosion caused by 70 kilos of TNT, the roar, the torn bodies, the flames, the broken lives, immediately gets to the heart of things Coco, to tell the story of the death of Judge Borsellino and the five escort agents. A lucid and aware Borsellino immediately identifies the distortions and half-truths that have already characterized the moments following his death and, with a rapid pace, meticulously traces the boundaries of a 17-year misdirection, drawing up, one after the another of the mannequins to represent the various characters, or rather the various “puppets” used to divert from the truth, thanks to the effective scenes created by Lydia Giordano and Iolanda Mariella.
There are the man in uniform who arrived among the first on the scene of the massacre and the (false) pentito Vincenzo Scarantino, and the prosecutor of Caltanissetta Giovanni Tinebra. There is also the dummy of Arnaldo La Barbera, head of the Palermo mobile squad, former informant of the Sisde and the excellent official Bruno Contrada. Puppets served to stage misdirection in a country where the search for truth often collides against insurmountable walls.
And even the liturgy of remembrance, one day a year – that July 19 in which tears and words unite all civil society – has obscured the search for another truth, the one loudly requested by Coco/Borsellino, because behind the massacre in via D’Ameglio there is yes the mafia but not only the mafia. The judge repeats it several times, even indulging in moments of discouragement, disappointment, anger, melancholy, or indulging in a liberating dance to the tune of the song Summer on a solitary beach by Franco Battiato.
The Festival will continue with three shows in the Iris Area in Ganzirri: on 16 August (at 9 pm) «Simposio», the highly acclaimed cunto by Gaspare Balsamo, will return; on the 17th (at 7 pm) a space for the little ones, «Upi pian pianino» with Monia Alferi (also director) and Manuela Boncaldo; on the 18th (at 9 pm), conclusion with “Vacanze Romane”, written and directed by Nella Tirante and interpreted by Giulia Eugeni and Matteo Berardinelli.