Two performances with open stage applause, laughter and emotion convinced the producers of Buongiorno Sicilia to resume the show written by Giuseppe Lazzaro Danzuso and proposed in the auditorium of the Multifunctional Center in via Zurria directed by Angelo D’Agosta, who he performed with Andrea Balsamo. The public’s appreciation for this theatrical novelty full of references to the present – drought and famine, rubbish and loneliness, smartphones and nomophobia, wars and volcanic eruptions – included in the Corra la voci di Buongiorno Sicilia review, financed within Palcoscenico Catania 2024 by the Municipality and the Ministry of Culture. The president of the city council, Anastasi, “An authentic hymn to Catania”. The essayist Dora Marchese, “Only poets are capable of making thoughts, emotions and feelings eternal”.
“Today, we would be two bums, clochards who eat at the soup kitchen, sleep on the street and smoke culazzi. And our poems, perhaps, would be the lyrics of those rap songs that we listened to yesterday on our cell phones.” This is what Domenico Tempio says to Hercule Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac in a moment of the show Miciu e Cirano sulla luna, which, based on a text by Giuseppe Lazzaro Danzuso, was staged with great success directed by Angelo D’Agosta, also starring with Andrea Balsamo. Applause and laughter marked, in the Vito Papotto auditorium of the Multifunctional Center in via Zurria, the debut of this theatrical novelty full of references to the present: drought and famine, rubbish and loneliness, smartphones and nomophobia. The show – proposed as part of the Corra la Voce exhibition produced by Buongiorno Sicilia and financed as part of Palcoscenico Catania 2024 by the Municipality and the Ministry of Culture – starts from the consideration that those who have written works that have left their mark have the misfortune of not being able to die. And this happens to Miciu and Cirano, confined to the moon without knowing why, spending their time arguing and observing Catania with a telescope.
“A spectacular firework, an authentic hymn to our city – defined the work by Sebastiano Anastasi, president of the Catania City Council – which arises from the continuous duel, on stage, between Cyrano and Miciu. And the wonderful Roxanne, the one who makes us forget all the others, could just be Catania.”
And the one who exalts the city is Miciu, one of its immortal souls who, as his great-nephew Antonio Domenico Tempio, a researcher at the University of Catania, pointed out, “even if we have no direct evidence of the poet’s true character, I believe he was not so far from how he was represented on stage: melancholic and sarcastic at the same time”.
“What deeply touches the audience – said the essayist Dora Marchese – what moves them is the way of narrating, with verses, thoughts and metatheatrical moments. The effective acting of the actors and a beautiful and essential scenography put the words at the center of everything, in Sicilian, Italian and French, in describing the dreamlike and very human story of the two poets. Those poets capable of making thoughts, emotions, feelings eternal”.
Miciu and Cirano, in their moody exile, steal technological aids to observe our world, starting with the eruptions of Etna and the fires of war in Europe. And… they argue.
“It was truly gratifying – said Lazzaro Danzuso – to see the joy with which the public welcomed the idea that Domenico Tempio was a great poet, capable of strong social denunciations and not simply a pornographer. And those who attended the show did not fail to underline the many very topical points for reflection that emerged from the comparison between Miciu and Cirano”.
“For a director – added the much celebrated Angelo D’Agosta -, this work is really a lot of fun, because it allows you to play on different registers and multiple types of theater: masks, puppets, techniques of puppet theater, but also of classical theater. For the actor, then, there is the possibility to challenge himself thanks to a truly stimulating text”.
“A great welcome – added Andrea Balsamo, who plays Miciu – from the audience. Personally, I was fascinated by this character and I intend to study his work in depth”.
Appreciations also for the costumes and props – including masks and puppets – by Menonèmo and for the coordination work of the assistant director Agnese Failla. And, given the great success of Miciu and Cyrano on the Moon, a revival is already being considered.
“A very large audience – said the president of Buongiorno Sicilia Simone Trischitta – appreciated this show and had a lot of fun. So, after the two performances scheduled by Palcoscenico Catania, we will now see if we can represent it again”
The scene photos are by Marzio Pardo, mandatory citation
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