Director, actor (theatre, cinema and TV series), singer, essayist and now also narrator. Ninni Bruschetta, a 62-year-old from Messina who is more versatile than ever, surprises with his first novel, «La scuola del silenzio» (HarperCollins). Set in a city on the coast of eastern Sicily that looks too much like Messina not to be, the story – written in the first person – unfolds in two different moments in time, all too obviously linked to periods in the life of its author.
The first is the experience of a conscientious objector in an institute for the deaf and dumb, and Bruschetta was one in the 1980s (the topography described in the novel is perfectly consistent with the Cristo Re institute); the second tells the story of the protagonist working as an artistic director in his hometown (and Bruschetta held this position twice in the Messina Theater Authority, from 1996 to 1999 and from 2014 to 2016).
In short, a novel that is a carbon copy of its author’s life? Yes and no, also because in the pages the protagonist, full of ideals and perhaps also illusions, is unable to stage his “Hamlet”, while in real life Bruschetta, pragmatic enough not to give up his artistic “mission”, has staged “Hamlet” and much more in his city, always with success.
In “The School of Silence” (title referring to deaf-mutes, but also to certain “conspiracies”, possible in theatres, where everyone knows everything except the person directly involved) the narration flows quickly, full of facts, sensations and feelings, following a plot that is tinged with yellow among the deaf-mutes and dull grey in the corridors of the theatre. While the city by the sea remains immutable in its beauty that does not even give in to the ugliness of which a part, only a part, of its people are capable. And so: Messina or not? Antonio in the famous funeral oration of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” (a case of reverse psychology and one of the most interesting directions in Bruschetta’s career) speaks only of “men of honor”, more or less like the author who even goes on: “In an unspecified place on the coast of Eastern Sicily”, clearly implying (?) that it is not Messina or maybe not, a bit like, just to stay in the theater, it is impossible to establish who is the madman between Mrs. Frola and Mr. Ponza, her son-in-law, in Pirandello’s “So it is (if you think so)”, even if in this case it is not an author frequented by our new narrator.
In the conversation I had with Bruschetta – who will talk about the novel on July 29th (6.30 pm) at Villa Rosa (Serri di Ganzirri) in a «Literary Duet» with the writer Nadia Terranova for «Scintille dello Stretto»the tenth anniversary season of the House of Music and Arts «Giuseppe e Rosa Uccello» – we started right from this point.
You still don’t identify the city and the characters in your novel, but for me, who am from Messina, some of them – I’m talking about the theatre environment – it’s as if they had their identity cards in sight. How do we put it, maybe between Frola and Ponza I’m the crazy one?
“No, the source of fantasy is always reality. If we tell a story, it’s our story because, as Truffaut said, the only subject we really know is ourselves. Those who, like you, are from Messina and have always worked in the theater environment, are led by certain details to an identification. But if we decontextualize from a local environment linked to certain situations, which can be of 350 people at most, then the characters become literary. And not just bad, I would say.”
Explains.
“There is no such thing as a totally negative or totally positive character, and in any case, negative characters are those who make the history of literature. The character of the theatre commissioner, who stands out for his intelligence, represents the destructive power of the targeted use of bureaucracy. And, moving away from the Strait, when I presented the book in Milan, a journalist said that in the pages he had found the theatre world of his province”.
Of course, be it Messina or an unidentified city, theatre is not doing well throughout Italy.
“It’s even worse elsewhere. I worked for the Catania Stabile, which was born independent and non-political, as a great cultural operation, but elsewhere in general the Stabili are killing the theater because they produce shows that can only be sold among themselves and no longer intercept the theater as a cultural phenomenon.”
Even less can a public theatre limit itself to hosting shows…
«It makes sense to buy shows only to compare them with other types of productions and then make your own, turning largely to the territory, where private individuals are not entrepreneurs who invest 1 to earn 30, but small structures, which do not lack quality certifications».
Let’s go back to your novel, who are your literary fathers?
“The publishing house mentioned Sciascia and I am honored, but I prefer modern American literature for its lightness. Then, on the contrary, my favorite novel is “The Loser” by Thomas Bernhard, which is really very different from the way of writing that I used.”
Your character is a bit defeated, but you are not at all.
“It is in comparison to his country because, like me, he gives it too much importance, he always seeks approval, almost a pretense of having feedback from everyone. Then, as Gigi Proietti said, we must understand that we cannot please everyone.”
The experience of being an objector to Christ the King touched you a lot, if in the novel you made it as important as the theatre.
«When I asked Annibale Pavone (an actor from Messina living in Tuscany, ed.) to present the book in Florence, he immediately reminded me: “Once I came to get you from the deaf-mutes because we were rehearsing a show and you told me: I left these kids defenseless”. This is a feeling that I still carry with me».
At that time you were a theater director and you said that you would only do that, apart from a few forays into cinema, and then you swore that you would never act in the theater. Instead…
«You’re right. I started in cinema by chance because while Francesco Calogero and I were writing a scene from “La gentile del tocco”, he told me that I should play a certain character. Then I continued, they called me often».
Then came TV, always as a character actor, a topic on which you wrote an essay.
“When I had the first offer, I didn’t want to accept and I asked for a fee that I thought was reckless. Instead, they granted it to me and it went on like that, without me ever doing anything to impose myself.”
And then the turning point of the theatre.
“I absolutely didn’t want to do it, it scared me. Everything changed when I did a live TV show with Michele Santoro. I played Berlinguer interviewed by him, it was all from memory obviously and this gave me adrenaline and unblocked me. Then it was the musician from Messina Cettina Donato (jazz pianist, composer and orchestra director, ed.) who insisted after we had done a reading of Claudio Fava’s “My name is Cain” on Radiotre. From that show I became an actor.”
Even to the point of singing and recording an album, “I Siciliani”, with the poems of the late Antonio Caldarella!
“I don’t know shame and neither does Cettina who made me this proposal, but it was a very hard experience. I thanked my mother who had me study piano as a child. Knowing how to read music helped me, but going to the studio with high-level professionals and hearing yourself in headphones while you act and sing is very complicated. Afterwards, doing it live in the theater became easy, even if you have to “remember” the songs every day.”