CASERTA. We receive and publish the following press release. The last appointment of the twenty-third theater season, scheduled for Saturday 4 May at 9.00 pmAnd Sunday 5 May at 7.00 pmof the Small Theater Cts of Caserta, announces itself with a singular representation, if only for the presence of a completely naked actor on stage for the entire show, and for this reason, it is forbidden to minors under the age of eighteen. The title of this piece is: I WAS VERLAINE Of Antonio Moccioladirected and starring Giuseppe Brandiassistant director Francesco Petrilloand presented by the company Mentite Spoglie Theatre. With a tight and very tense text, with noir tinges, Antonio Mocciola tells the nightmare of the cursed poet Paul Verlaine, who passed from the altars of glory to the dust of ignominious incarceration. Giuseppe Brandi embodies the pain, humiliation and anger of one of the greatest and most controversial literary cases in history. This is the synopsis: When, in 1873, the great French poet Paul-Marie Verlainethen thirty years old, decides to leave his wife and little son to escape with the very young poet Arthur Rimbaud, 19 years old, the scandal crept into the chatter of Parisian salons. But no one would have predicted the tragic epilogue. In a hotel in Brussels, Verlaine wounds his partner with a pistol, and is sentenced to two years in prison, on the infamous charge of sodomy, as well as attempted murder (for which Rimbaud himself attempted to exonerate him). Alone, in prison, deprived of everything, Verlaine learned of the definitive humiliation: the approval of the request for separation (very rare at the time) by his wife. Nothing remained of the great poet, haughty, audacious, irreverent. But the final blow comes when judge t’Serstevens orders a humiliating medical examination, to “verify the pederasty of the poet Paul Verlain”, delegating two doctors, Semal and Vleminckx, to completely inspect his anus and genitals. The prisoner is then ordered to wait, completely naked, with his hands behind his head and under close surveillance. The actor Giuseppe Brandi, therefore, will be completely naked on stage, and here is his opinion on the matter: “I believe it is the duty of an artist in general to experience the thrill of throwing oneself into the void. I, who have never had an excellent relationship with my body, will be a further challenge to myself. We live in a society with an almost sick obsession with bodies. So much so, that we suffer constant bombardment. The intent of the nude in this show is to corroborate a dramaturgy that focuses on an abuse suffered by a man, who had chosen to be free in an era, unfortunately, still too closed”.
