The theater is used to stop, to enter the life of others, of those others that we could be us. And it is significant to do it with the theatrical text “Take a wrong or reason” of the writer, playwright and South African screenwriter Ronald Harwood, text that, with the translation of Alessandra Serra e For the direction of the Catania Giovanni Anfuso (help directed Lucia Rotondo) From tomorrow to Sunday, after the great success at the India Theater in Rome and at the Teatro Stabile in Catania, It will be represented at the Vittorio Emanuele Theater in Messina.
The show, produced by the Teatro Stabile di Catania, the Teatro di Messina and the Teatro di Roma Foundation, is taken from “a very intense and profound text – as the director Anfuso tells us, who is also, with Matteo Pappalardo, the artistic director of the Autonomous Authority Regional Teatro di Messina – and tells us the story of the German conductor Wilhelm Furwängler and his inquisition at the Denazification courts In the aftermath of Hitler’s defeat. Furtwängler is accused of having remained in Berlin and of not having fled like many of his colleagues, above all, clearly, the Jews. The text investigates the relationship between art and politics, between free will and conditioning that power exercises on the artists and questions the consciences of each of us on the fact that somehow we are guilty where we do not oppose forcefully ».
These are the questions that the text has asked the director, who strongly aims to reopen the relations between the theater and the territory: “A lot of work for the music section has already been done with Matteo Pappalardo – says Anfuso -, but the prose section yes finds having to invent a path and recover the relationship with the national circuit, as we have already done with our cousins, the building of Catania and Palermo; And then we are looking at Rome and Milan ». The theater that grows and unites, which creates communities and that recovers role.
Meanwhile, Anfuso for this particular show has made use of a well -tested group of collaborators, with the scenes of Andrea Taddei, the costumes of Isabella Rizza, the music of Paolo Daniele and the lights of the Messina Antonio Rinaldi, and six actors “that me They followed – he continues – transforming a show that basically made up of three interrogations into a meeting/clash between men with their fragility, obstinations and weaknesses, with the need to Scagiona of Furtwängler on one side and on the other with the obsessive one to find a culprit anyway ».
You are the magnificent actors: Stefano Santospago, Simone Toni, Liliana Randi Luigi Nicotra, Roberta Catanese and Giampiero Cicciò, the last two Messina and with intense and important roles. We talked about it with Giampiero Cicciò.
Giampiero, a demanding text, “wrongly or reason”, which deals with the relationship between art and politics, an ancient but always current topic.
«Yes, that you live walking through a dictatorship or in democracy, or in those middle streets that are replacing it all over the world, politics is aware that managing places of art, such as museums and theaters, gives prestige. But, especially in recent decades, this prestige has not always corresponded to quality. The story is full of examples. The popes magnified their greatness, their power, through immense artists such as Michelangelo or Bernini, Hitler through brilliant talents such as Ziegler, Furwängler or Richard Strauss. This is still the case today. Even the Sanremo Festival is disputed from right to left. And even the village people broth … ».
What is the main theme?
«I think the main theme is human fragility. The real criminals, Hitler, Goebbels, Göring, are only evoked on stage. Here the characters of Harwood, German or American, are victims internally devastated by the cruelty of Nazism. And unfortunately that hatred towards other nations, other ethnic groups and minorities today lives a disturbing regurgitation all over the world ».
What is your role and how did you find yourself in the belly of the character you play?
«I play Helmut Rode, a character of invention, according to violin to the Berlin Philharmonic, emblem of those who terrified by absolute power do not have the strength to act with courage, to rebel, and not to be killed or not to lose their jobs , must join the policy of the moment, however abject it can be. For an actor it is a magnificent role to work on. He is not an evil man like his leaders but his connivance, his fearful, make him one of the causes for which the dictatorships manage to survive ».
“Take a wrong or reason” is not a new text for Italy. How was it working for this direction?
«Anfuso is a director who leaves great freedom to the actors and knows how to enhance their proposals. Here he formed a first -rate cast. My colleagues all have a great talent and it is a pleasure for me to be in this beautiful cast. And finally, after a long time, we have a show that also sees our theater in Messina among the producers and that goes on tour ».
Among your next commitments there is the Festival undivsen at the end of April in Rome for which they take care of the artistic direction. How does the organization proceed?
«This festival that takes place at the diamond space is now central in my work and in my life because it has become an important Roman showcase especially for young companies. It makes me feel useful and it is the festival that at the beginning of my professional path I would have liked to already exist in Rome. He snatches many theatrical dreams at risk of mold from the drawers in an Italian context often inattentive to talents without saints in paradise. All this is due to Alessandro Longobardi, among other things artistic director of the Teatro Brancaccio and the Umberto room, which is the creator as well as the deus ex machina of this festival “.