Tonight it debuts at Vittorio Emanuele Theatre the show “The Intellectuals” by Molièreon stage until Sunday. The comedy, directed by Giovanni Anfuso and produced by Ear Theater of Messina and Tdc Theater of the Cityalso opens the Prose season. An interesting show is looming both for the exceptional nature of the staging and for the performers. In the main roles Giuseppe Pambieri, Giorgio Lupano and Micol Pambieriwho we interviewed. The presence of maestro Pambieri is authoritative, an icon of Italian theater who in his long and intense career has interpreted texts by the major classical and contemporary authors and has been directed by the greatest Italian directors.
Pambieri often acts alongside his daughter Micol, who has worked in Greek and Roman theatre, on Goldoni, Pirandello, Strinberg and others. Also important was Giorgio Lupano, a versatile actor, known by the general public for his participations, as well as in cinema, in television series (such as in Rai Uno’s Ladies’ Paradise). But the Piedmontese actor was born artistically as a theater actor. We ask Giuseppe Pambieri:
What was your approach to Molìere’s The Intellectuals?
«It is a particular text, little seen compared to Truffle or Imaginary Sick, perhaps also because it lacks a real protagonist. Here, however, the director did a very interesting job on my character who practically became a protagonist and he also worked well on the role of my wife, played by my daughter Micol. My character is a wife-slaver, a weakling who seeks redemption. With Anfuso I also did A Class of Iron and A simple story by Sciascia on stage last year at the Stabile di Catania. And I am very happy to work here with Giorgio Lupano, whom I respect a lot.”
By the way, what is your relationship with Sicily?
«A family relationship because my maternal grandfather was from Ravanusa in the province of Agrigento from which he left for Milan in the early 1900s. But apart from this, I work a lot in Sicily as in the classical representations in Segesta and Syracuse. I love all theater from classical to contemporary, I’m eclectic and I don’t want to confine myself to the same roles and genres.”
What are his plans?
«We will resume The Lady Murders which is an English comic noir, based on a film from the 1950s, then in the 2000s taken up by the Cohen brothers’ remake with Tom Hanks, which had considerable success, so we will propose it again in the first months of next year year. Then I will do an Adelchi reading, at the Teatro Arcobaleno, where I am Desiderio; an operation that intrigued me a lot.”
Giorgio Lupano, you were born artistically as a theater actor, with a solid education at the Scuola del Teatro Stabile in Turin directed by Luca Ronconi, how do you experience the very frequent return to the stage?
«As someone who has never left, I always return to the stage as if I were returning home. An ancient love of mine, since I was a child instead of being taken to football matches I asked my parents, who agreed favorably, to take me to the theater where everything intrigued me and still intrigues me.”
You have been directed by Sicilian directors such as Roberto Andò in The Prince’s Manuscript, Under a False Name, Anniversary by Arold Pinter, today you act with another Sicilian director in this comedy by Molìere…
«I worked very well with Andò thanks to whom I was in Palermo to act, when I arrived in that city so different from mine, from Turin, I felt a great affinity. Opposites attract. But I love all of Sicily, including Catania and Messina. The work in which the director involved me is interesting and little represented in Italy, we can’t wait to debut on Friday and then be in other Sicilian cities.”
Micol Pambieri, what general approach did you use to approach The Intellectuals?
«We had already done The School of Wives by Moliere, but this is a strange text, it seems like something is missing but in reality it is all there and it is also current on the topic of intellectuals. Today intellectuals do not exist, the real ones of the past created thoughts, movements, manifestos, left their mark, today they palely repeat and replicate what others have done. There is a phrase in the show that says that the power wants to maintain ignorance, words, strangely uttered by a character who is a pseudo intellectual, but profoundly true.”
What does acting with your father mean to you?
«It’s beautiful! With him I played many roles: the wife, the lover, the daughter as in Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus. We know each other perfectly and grasp even the smallest nuances of expression and voice. She often acted with him with her mother who decided to retire from the stage, I hope to be able to share the stage with my father as much as possible!