War doesn’t always come with the crash of bombs. Sometimes he knocks on the door, sits down in the living room and patiently explains why it is best to leave. This is the premise of “I Carabinieri – A farce on war”, the text by Beniamino Joppolo which debuts tomorrow evening, Wednesday 1 April, at 9pm at the Teatro di Messina directed by Roberto Zorn Bonaventura.
The show, a production of the Teatro di Messina – Theatrical Production Centre, brings on stage Monia Alfieri, Marina Cacciola, Gianluca Cesale, Gerri Cucinotta, Vincenzo Palmeri, Antonio Previti and Damiano Venuto. The costumes are designed by Cinzia Preitano, the assistant director is by Martina Morabito, with the collaboration of Marilisa Busà.
“War? That fact that one advances and kills the enemies? – explains Bonaventura – The carabiniere is, literally, a soldier who carries a carbine, a weapon. In Beniamino Joppolo’s text the carabinieri enter homes calmly, they don’t impose: they explain, they definitely deceive. They present the war as an opportunity, a possibility of redemption, an investment in the future. The conquests are guaranteed, the rewards assured. There is even a signature in a contract. It is it’s difficult not to trust in the face of such clarity.”
“War here is not fury, it is organization – adds the director – And it is precisely in this organization that the illusion lies: the illusion that violence can be administered, that conquest is a right, that sacrifice has a logic and a reward. Joppolo builds a mechanism that is both ironic and cruel. He makes us witness the birth of consensus, the moment in which the absurd disguises itself as opportunity and becomes convincing”.
“The show – concludes Bonaventura – works on a double movement: the smile that precedes the crash, the promise that prepares the mutilation, the word that makes the irreparable acceptable. War doesn’t need heroes. A well-argued illusion is enough for it. And it always begins like this”.
On stage from 1st to 11th April (excluding 4th, 5th and 6th). Curtain at 9pm.