The visionary and philosophical poetics of Albert Camus (author, among other things, of “The Stranger” and “The Plague”), his investigation into the absurd and his thoughts suspended between what is desired and the indifference of nature are the matrix of the project conceived by Rosario Diana “Camus 2020. Working Notes”, the third chapter of a substantial research that aims to delve into the philosophical theme of recognition and that opens up to humanistic reflection intertwined with the languages of the performing arts.
After the first chapter dedicated to John Milton's “Paradise Lost” with the actress Valentina Acca and the analysis of “Diramazioni da Hegel” with the actor-director Lino Musella, the trilogy entitled “Scenes of Recognition” is completed with Andrea Renzi, performer of the melodrama in three scenes – for as many voices – in which the universe of Camus (who died dramatically in a car accident in January 1960 together with his friend-editor Michel Gallimard) emerges in all its foundations.
The choice of the three authors-thinkers originates from an essay by Fiorinda Li Vigni (general secretary of the Italian Institute for Philosophical Studies), who will introduce the show on July 8th.
"Behind every claim (political, union, existential, individual) it is essential that the other party recognizes the existence of a right. A crucial question of our life”, explains the scriptwriter, Rosario Diana.
"The absurd, death, wisdom, the concept of revolt, justice, nothingness, time, happiness and the absence of God are the historical-intellectual cornerstones of Camus 2020 and these macro-topics coexist in an existence that makes you chase happiness while dealing with its unavoidable finiteness, which nevertheless pushes us to live fully, opening ourselves to solidarity with our fellow men in the practice of revolt against injustice and in the renunciation of revolutions that claim to establish the reign of good on earth in a distant future while in the present they are harbingers of death and terror.".
The melodrama offers a critical interpretation of Camus' writings and Andrea Renzi experiences meta-theatrical disorientation when he suddenly speaks in the first person about his profession as an actor in accordance with the ideas of the French writer.
"The melodrama – says Renzi – stimulates an attitude towards listening and allows one to explore one's own capacity for open-mindedness, technique and sensoriality. It leaves balanced margins for improvisation that can create empathy with the audience. Among the themes addressed by Camus, I feel that of the absurd very close to me. He feels it with the same urgency as the poet-playwright Samuel Beckett, but the French writer explicitly expresses with a strong moral sense the hand-to-hand combat with this vertigo that the absurd represents".
"In this melodrama, music acts as a character that interacts with the performer. – reiterates the composer Rosalba Quindici – because I never work thinking of the score as a simple sound counterpoint to the actor's voice. Fundamental is the work of interpreting the text and the comparison with Andrea Renzi to create short circuits, resonances of what is declaimed, leaving some solo moments in which the audience immerses itself in listening to the sound after having listened to the reciting voice.
For years – adds Quindici – alongside the writing of absolute music, forms of hybrid experimentation that fall within the so-called musical theatre. I believe in musical perception as a synaesthetic experience in which there is parity between the visual and auditory elements".
"The melologues I have written – claims Rosario Diana – They should not be considered lessons to be held on stage. Lessons are given from the chair. They are rather attempts to give further force to concepts through performative transposition.
On this occasion with a theatrical/musical form, thanks to the collaboration with the composer Rosalba Quindici. In the text I quote Epicurus, Descartes, Beckett, Dostoevsky, it's true. These authors are reagents to shape from time to time the ideas, which revolve around an image of the world, which we discover is no longer familiar to us: a 'divorce' that is the driving force of Camus' absurd".
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