Debuting on February 3rd at 21.00 pm at the Sannazaro theatre is Harold Pinter's Betrayals with Stefano Braschi, Stefania Medri, Michele Sinisi, directed by Michele Sinisi.
Article Key Points
Betrayal is the staging of the work of the same name that Nobel Prize winner for Literature Harold Pinter presented for the first time to the London public in 1978. The story is that of an extramarital affair retraced backwards, from its end to its beginning. It all begins two years after the end of the relationship and ends before it begins. But, in addition to the two lovers, there is also her husband, who is also his best friend. In short, a triangle in all respects, with an apparently simple and linear plot.
If it were not for the fact that the succession of events slowly leaves room for the complexity of the soul of the three characters, united by a secret that is sometimes difficult to bear. Pinter's text comes to life on stage in a bloody and dry staging - at times violent - where the unsaid words, the unspoken thoughts, the hidden actions fill the lives of the three protagonists, invade the spaces, burst in forcefully, undermining all their relationships.
And it is precisely in the tension given by the silences, by what could have been said and that instead was left silent, the central nucleus of the play. Michele Sinisi delves into the exploration of the invisible working with the actors on the different humanities of Jerry, Robert and Emma to give the audience back alive, carnal, powerful characters.
Stefano Braschi, Stefania Medri and Michele Sinisi himself – on stage in the role of the betrayed husband Robert – move on a stage dominated by an imposing scoreboard, built by the set designer Federico Biancalani along the lines of luminous clocks: instruments perhaps more akin to a human perception of time, made up of imperfect intervals, never precise.
The space/time captions present in the drama therefore light up periodically to mark the different moments of the show, giving a tight rhythm to the play, in a journey in reverse towards the origin of the betrayal, retraced to the rhythm of 80s rock.
DIRECTOR'S NOTES
Those who frequent theatre and literature know Pinter and his Betrayal very well. This should make it very difficult for a director today to carry on an original discourse on the text. The deepening of the human in all its facets was undoubtedly the starting point of my work on the opera.
Who are these characters? What social relationships do they have with each other? What kind of environment are they immersed in? The result is a show built side by side with the set designer Federico Biancalani and the actors. In fact, a deep collective comparison with respect to the text and its possible interpretations was fundamental.
Betrayals is in fact rich in elements of analysis, of food for thought that can still activate, in the public, a “powerful” response. We just need to look for new perspectives from which to look at betrayal, to examine the complexity of this theme. It is not enough to represent it.
To do this I made the scenography a co-protagonist, a fundamental element in fact to physically bring the work in front of the spectator creating an environment in which the bodies and voices can emerge in all their vital force. The risk of betraying in some way the text, the author's voice is concrete and alive every time you tackle a work, but betraying, in this sense, means elaborating, giving the author's voice a new space in which to express itself. I decided to tackle this "translation" on stage using the text, the art, as a common thread.
Emma's profession as a gallery owner, the one linked to Jerry and Robert's writing are the elements through which the artistic path questions itself, in the text and on stage. This is what I wanted to enhance, together with the study of the relationships between the protagonists, their relationships. However, as always, paying great attention to the audience. Theater must be fun and engaging.
The audience must therefore find something of itself, something close to it in the performance. I do not want to carry on a self-referential intellectual discourse reserved for experts in the field. Betrayals must be able to excite, to move to a reflection, to be part of the present.
Reruns schedule:
- Friday 3 February 21.00 hours
- Saturday 4 February 21.00 hours
- Sunday 5 February hours 18.00
Article published on 28 January 2023 - 12:01
