Il Giuocatore by Carlo Goldoni, shows in Rome

A comedy that is striking for its contemporaneity

Category: Shows
From 04/04/2024 to 14/04/2024
Sala Umberto Theatre
Via della Mercede, 50 – Rome (RM) (Centre)

Roberto Valerio, after L’Impresario delle Smirne by Carlo Goldoni in 2013, returns to the Venetian author, one of the fathers of modern comedy to revisit and stage a text that is striking for its contemporaneity: Il Giuocatore.

It is one of the “sixteen new comedies” that Goldoni undertook to write, at the end of the 1750 carnival, as a challenge to the Venetian public, in just one year (giving life to some masterpieces such as The Coffee Shop and The Liar). It is a vivid study of characters, drawn with panache and precision, which make up the portrait of an entire society, with its virtues and, above all, its vices. Goldoni had in fact set himself the task of representing an “exemplary theatre” that would “awaken” from the fascination of the game. And he spoke, as always for the most humanist of playwrights, from personal experience: he himself, he confesses in the preface of the printed edition, had experienced first-hand “the terrible consequences of this anxious pleasure”, a regular visitor to the Ridotti, the adjoining rooms to specific theaters for the various types of games, very widespread in eighteenth-century Venice.

At the center of the comedy is Florindo, who, devoured by his passion for gambling, loses everything: his money, his friendships, the love of his betrothed Rosaura, whom he also sincerely loves, and does not hesitate to promise to marry the old and rich Gandolfa just to get the money to play again and continue to dream, like all players of yesterday and today, of the “fabulous win” that will allow him to abandon the green table. A highly topical theme that Roberto Valerio wanted to represent on a scene, conceived by Guido Fiorato, occupied by a large boat, which ferries the protagonists towards adventures and misfortunes, vices and attempts at emancipation, drama and comedy, driven by that sweet and poisonous wind which is the illusion, of which all the characters are victims. Everyone lives the fantasy of changing their lives, of winning, of becoming famous, of seeing all their desires come true, they are united by a deep-rooted inability to deal with reality.

It is therefore an only apparently calm sea that passes through those who are prey to addictions, be they emotional, gambling, drugs, alcohol, sex or, according to contemporary times, gaming, smartphones, the internet or social networks, drugs: until it is possible to respond to the request there is an apparent balance, as soon as abstinence kicks in the deep root of the discomfort is unleashed. The idea of ​​the boat is also a tribute to a theater understood as a journey and to Giorgio Strehler, who thus portrays it when speaking of the eighteenth-century playwright, in his Memorie Goldoniane rewritten between the spring of 1993 and Christmas 1997 and never performed on stage, an act of love towards theatricality. In the script, based on the autobiography, we see a very young Goldoni who decides to embark from Rimini towards Venice together with a company of comedians, a short journey but which symbolically is the beginning of a journey that the author will continue for his entire existence.

The Gambler is a magnificent text, always poised between comedy and drama, of great modernity, a black comedy that contains within itself the possibility of lightly recounting the vices and hypocrisies of man. The live music, the dance and the original songs performed by the characters contribute to composing a complex, fun and biting, ironic and playful show, which does not overlook the drama of the characters and aims to rediscover the true soul of Goldoni, a writer capable of exploring deep into the human soul with a smile on his lips.

THE PLAYER
by Carlo Goldoni

adaptation and direction ROBERTO VALERIO

with Alessandro Averone, Mimosa Campironi, Alvia Reale, Nicola Rignanese, Massimo Grigò, Davide Lorino, Roberta Rosignoli, Mario Valiani
sets and costumes Guido Fiorato
original music Mimosa Campironi
lights Emiliano Pona

assistant director Irene Pagano | set and costume assistant Anna Varaldo
chief engineer Giovanni Coppola
chief electrician Daniela Gullo | seamstress Debora Pino
director of the exhibition Tommaso Checcucci
scene creation Pesaro Scenography Laboratory
press office Elisa Sirianni | still photos Ilaria Costanzo Video footage Lorenzo Marianeschi
production secretary Sara Bruni | production manager Monica Paperetti

a production by Teatri di Pistoia – Theater Production Centre

UMBERTO ROOM

CHARACTERS AND INTERPRETERS

Florindo Aretusi, young civilian, gambler
Alessandro Averone

Rosaura, daughter of Pantalone, betrothed to Florindo
Mimosa Campironi

Gandolfa, old sister of Pantalone
Royal Alvia

Pancrazio, owner of the casino and friend of the old Gandolfa
Nicola Rignanese

Lelio and Agapito, players
Massimo Grigò

Pantalone de’ Bisognosi, Venetian merchant
Davide Lorino

Beatrice, Florindo’s lover
Roberta Rosignoli

Tiburzio, advantage player and servant
Mario Valiani

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