The Nest company, in co-production with Diana OR.IS, will stage Premiata Pasticceria Bellavista, a comedy by Vincenzo Salemme, on July 2nd at the Teatro Mercadante, as part of the Campania Teatro Festival directed by Ruggero Cappuccio.
For the first time in his career as an author, Vincenzo Salemme “entrusts” one of his texts to another company, without his participation as an actor or director.
The show is in the 2023/2024 program of the Diana theater and will be on stage from May 2, 2024.
For the Nest Company, the journey into the world of classics continues, after Shakespeare, Pirandello, Eduardo, Age and Scarpelli.
What the series is about?
Ermanno and Giuditta Bellavista are the owners of a pastry shop attached to their house. Their mother, who suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure, lives with them. Ermanno has a secret relationship with Romina, who is tired of having to talk to him in secret and wants him to decide to talk to the family about it. Giuditta also has a secret relationship with Aldo, a pastry chef employed by the Bellavistas, who however does not love the unattractive Giuditta but aims at her wealth. Meanwhile, it is discovered that Ermanno three months earlier, had undergone an eye transplant, which were taken from Carmine, a homeless man who after a car accident went into a coma. However, believed to be dead, it was decided to remove his eyes and transplant them to Ermanno. Thus, once awakened from the coma, Carmine finds himself blind. Carmine manages to reach Ermanno's pastry shop, revealing to him that he has not had eyes for 3 months, and that the prof. Rubelli, who performed the operation, is implicated in gambling and illicit organ trafficking. Carmine decides to stay in Ermanno's pastry shop, saying that now he will have to watch his life for him. In the meantime, two problems arise: Ermanno and Giuditta's mother, convinced that her children want her to die to get hold of the inheritance, wants to cut them out of the will. As a result, Aldo is no longer so sure about marrying Giuditta, knowing that she may no longer be able to inherit. Carmine seizes the opportunity to devise a plan with which Ermanno's, Giuditta's and his own problems can be solved.
Director's Notes
“Blind, you are poor blind” (Vincenzo Salemme)
Are our eyes enough to look at life? Premiata Pasticceria Bellavista tells the difference between looking and seeing. A story of blindness, of men and women unable to observe life and the world around them. The story of a social and cultural condition in which each character in the comedy is unable to face the path that life has put in front of them and acts pretending not to see. It is no coincidence that a blind man will come to open everyone's eyes and put them in front of the truth that none of them has the courage to say and tell themselves. A Kafkaesque paradox that Salemme unravels throughout the comedy with his inspired pen made of lightning-fast jokes and existential tirades that highlight a hypocritical and cowardly world, guided by a voice that comes from above, the voice of a mother, a creative figure like that of God. A comedy in which you laugh out loud even if there would not be much to laugh about. This is often the strength of Salemme's writing: being able to tell the cracks of the human being through laughter, that laughter that has not yet buried us and who knows if it ever will. And just like Eduardo De Filippo did, Salemme manages to tell the whole world through the events of a family, a humanity that walks with blinkers, that has difficulties in relationships, that only aims for personal profit, that lies shamelessly and never looks reality in the face. A bitter story set in the kingdom of sweets: a pastry shop. And a cake will ultimately solve all their problems and sweeten those insipid lives, freeing them from the burden of those who brought them into the world and conditioned their every choice. Even if, perhaps, we will never free ourselves from those who created us as we are. For the Nest Company, the journey into the world of classics continues, after Shakespeare, Pirandello, Eduardo, Age and Scarpelli, we decided to confront ourselves with this text that we consider to all intents and purposes a contemporary classic.
Nest Company
Notes by the author
It was the early 90s and I remember that there was a lot of discussion about the law on organ donation and several episodes that caused a lot of fear came out in the news pages. Episodes that told of people who were given up for dead and then miraculously woke up. "Can you imagine if they removed your organs believing you were dead when in fact you weren't at all?". That's how the idea for Premiata Pasticceria Bellavista was born. Precisely by imagining something like that. Not that I'm against donation, on the contrary. But talking about the most hidden fears of the human soul has always fascinated me. Without the pretense of finding answers. Also because they are fears against which we can't do much except talk about them, find a way out of the darkness of reason in an open and trusting relationship with the rest of the world. I always try to do it in a humorous way, not out of a lack of respect in dealing with such delicate topics but because laughing and hearing people laugh helps me better deal with my own fragilities. With affection and respect for those who decide to come to the theater to “watch” my stories. And I am happy that, for the first time in my career as an author, it will not be me telling my story but a group of young artists with a prestigious history behind them and a future full of passion yet to be written.
Vincenzo Salemme
Article published on 26 June 2023 - 16:00
Video Chronicles
