Current and fun. Applause last night for Molière’s The Imaginary Invalid, directed by Salvo Ficarra and in the new production of the Teatro della Città, which opened the 2024-2025 season of the Teatro Massimo Città di Siracusa. Very current text with Angelo Tosto becoming a perfect comedic leader as Argan. «It is a pop show: understandable to everyone, and has multiple levels of reading: Molière conveyed scathing messages about the human condition but through comedy – explains Ficarra presenting his adaptation -. There is music, magic, sport. Lello Analfino made beautiful music and in one song there is an exceptional lyricist, Molière himself. We wanted to bring the text back to its origins, trying to retrace the spirit that animated Molière and his company.”
On stage Filippo Brazzaventre, Daniele Bruno Cosimo Coltraro, Giovanna Criscuolo, Luca Fiorino, Anita Indigeno, Lucia Portale, Emanuele Puglia, Giovanni Rizzuti. And the dancers Licia Bisicchia and Daniele Caruso. It will be repeated tonight, tomorrow and on Sunday afternoon.
Ficarra’s direction opens a very rich program in synergy with the Municipality of Syracuse: four performances for each show and a varied program in which universal themes are intertwined. There will be five posters: alongside the 10 traditional theater shows, there will be #NuovoTeatro with another ten shows; Civil Theater with six shows; Children’s Theater and a women’s theater with the Word of an Actress. «In a historical moment like the current one – declares the artistic director Orazio Torrisi – the theater has the need and the moral duty to put itself at the service of man to send messages and food for thought. Return to emotion, with the heart and with the mind so that the soul is also nourished.” For this reason we propose a «rich program which is not only based on classical theater but which also focuses on contemporary theater texts. A national contemporary theater award dedicated to the great actress Piera Degli Esposti and aimed at actresses will also be established.”
Great return, from November 21st, for Maddalena Crippa who together with Maximilian Nisi will stage Un Sogno a Istanbul, directed by Alessio Pizzech from Paolo Rumiz’s bestseller “La cotogna di Istanbul”. On stage Mario Incudine, who also signs the music. Le Intellectuali (Femmes savantes) will arrive on 5 December, a refined and cultured text by Molière, directed by Giovanni Anfuso, with Giuseppe Pambieri, Giorgio Lupano and Micol Pambieri. From 23 January, Parlami d’amore (When the radio sang life) will be on stage, written by Costanza Di Quattro, directed by Pino Strabioli, with Mario Incudine and Antonio Vasta on piano and accordion.
The program will continue from February 13th with Il fu Mattia Pascal, by Luigi Pirandello, directed by Giorgio Marchesi and Simonetta Solder, a musical drama performed live by Raffaele Toninelli, with Giorgio Marchesi, the beloved face of fiction. On stage from February 27th La Maria Brasca by Giovanni Testori, adapted and directed by Andrèe Ruth Shammah, starring Marina Rocco. With her on stage Mariella Valentini, Luca Sandri and Filippo Lai.