Stéphane Braunschweig, among the main directors of the contemporary theater scene and artistic director of the Odéon – Théâtre de l’Europe in Paris, presents The life I gave you Of Luigi Pirandello with a great cast composed of Daria Deflorian, Federica Fracassi, Cecilia Bertozzi (2, 4 and 5 May) / Giulia Odetto (3 May), Fulvio Pepe, Enrica Origo, Caterina Tieghi, Fabrizio Costella.
After the international successes of Six characters in search of an author, The mountain giants, Dressing the naked And How you want me, The life I gave you, written in 1923, is the most poignant tragedy by the great Sicilian playwright on the theme of motherhood and mourning. The opera conceived by Pirandello for Eleonora Duse was never performed by the actress. The text was performed for the first time at the Quirino Theater in Rome on 12 October 1923 by Alda Borelli.
«The life I gave you it is one of the few texts that the author himself has defined as “a tragedy”. It is preceded by three short stories written between 1914 and 1916. Ne The pensioners of memory, Pirandello questions the relationship between the living and the dead, and formulates, perhaps for the first time, the disturbing idea that when one mourns the loss of a loved one, it is not the loved one who is mourning: “You cry because the dead He can no longer give you a reality.” In Interviews with the characters, written immediately after his mother’s death, Pirandello explores the same idea in a long and poignant dialogue with the deceased. Shocked by the carnage of the Great War and anguished by the idea of losing his children at the front, Pirandello wrote The room waitingthe mother and sisters of a missing soldier, not having certain proof of his death, continue to prepare his room while awaiting his return. The life I gave you takes up some of the main elements of this novella, developing the theme on an even more radical register. How can a mother survive the death of her child? asks Pirandello. Simply stating that he is not dead. Or, more accurately, pretending he’s still alive. [..] In Pirandello’s work, the reality of life often appears as an insurmountable scandal, which theater or madness have the purpose of transfiguring. In the imaginary world of the theatrical game or in the parallel world of madness one can escape, elevate oneself, make the dead live and escape the paradoxically deadly logic of life. In Pirandello, theater and madness are linked. Pirandello’s great characters often seem mad to those around them, but, unlike true madmen, theirs is a deliberate madness, the madness of those who want to be like madmen, and, like them, refuses the limits of a reality reduced to only truth of the facts. […] Pirandello shakes our certainties, our preconceptions, despite knowing that reality will end up putting an end to the illusion, he makes us understand how much we need illusions but conscious illusions and not the lies we tell ourselves to stay standing. How much we need theater to face life.”
The scenes of the show are from Stéphane Braunschweig in collaboration with Lisetta Buccellatoi costumes by Lisetta Buccellato, lights by Marion Hewlett, sound by Filippo Conti, assistant director Giulia Odetto. This new setup is produced by Teatro Stabile di Torino – Teatro Nazionale, Emilia Romagna Teatro ER T / Teatro Nazionale.
Saturday at 5pm at the Sala della Repubblica of the Rossini Theater for Beyond the scene the company will meet the public.
Information and pre-sales: Rossini Theater 0721 387621, AMAT 071 2072439 and vivaticket circuit ticket offices (also online). Start of shows: Thursday and Friday at 9pm, Saturday at 7pm, Sunday at 5pm.
