«Ludopazza», or how gambling addiction can destroy lives: at the Fringe Festival in Milan and then in Catania

John

By John

Treccani in hand, the exact definition is: «Pathological addiction to electronic games or gambling». It is gambling addiction, a real disease from which, according to official data, over one million and 300 thousand Italians suffer (a figure which is most likely decidedly lower than reality), of which just ten percent are being treated. In short, a real epidemic that strikes without distinction of sex, social status and geographical areas. This pathology is the protagonist of the theatrical monologue «Ludopazza», written by Davide Marchettajournalist, writer and playwright from Messina, and played and directed by his niece Sabrina Marchettidaughter of Maurizio, a well-known TV, cinema and theater actor (assistant director Adriana Mangano).
In short, a significant representation of Messina which will be the protagonist at the fifth edition of the Milan Off Fringe Festival, for which it will be on stage from tonight to Sunday in the Comics Museum, in Viale Campania.
The Milanese event, which is based on an important program hosted in various venues, is considered the celebration of off-the-air theater and performing arts, uses alternative spaces and is also very interesting because it allows actors, authors and directors to have contacts not only with the public, traditionally numerous, but also with national and foreign entertainment operators.
Contemporary dramaturgy, often little considered by public theatres, finds its maximum valorisation on these occasions, which is important both because being chosen for this festival is already an important recognition and because one has the possibility of touching on authentic themes with which we live closely. contact every day.
Davide Marchetta presents his text as follows: «With disarming sincerity and raw and merciless language, Sandra – the nurse protagonist of the monologue – recounts her descent into the maelstrom of gambling addiction, that nightmare vortex from which it is impossible to emerge once you have the misfortune of falling into it, a real vortex that overwhelms everything: affections, values, feelings, profession, dignity, everything.” With her no-nonsense speeches, Sandra sits on stage on a typical high stool from a slots hall, the infernal place of her perdition. It is here that she speaks and tells of her fall into the vortex, which appears to have no exit. She does not spare any detail of her life, which has become difficult and adventurous, lived between lies and betrayals, of herself and of others, starting with family and friends, that is, with the people who love her, despite everything.
Sensations that do not seem to be able to escape, and which for every moment of apparent relief and respite immediately announce the inevitable relapse. Sandra has only cigarettes left which, as the author says, are “faithful companions on the narrative journey that brought her to us spectators”.
The show will then be staged in Catania (Fringe Festival, Piazza Scammacca, from 19 to 29 October).