Prose Season | Sunday 9 January at 17 |
Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti
On Sunday 9 January at 5pm, the Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti in Spoleto will host the world premiere of the play Chi ha paura di Virginia Woolf? – the unforgettable success by Edward Albee staged by Antonio Latella, produced by the Teatro Stabile dell’Umbria with the special contribution of the Brunello and Federica Cucinelli Foundation. The actors on stage are Sonia Bergamasco, Vinicio Marchioni, Ludovico Fededegni and Paola Giannini.
Tuesday 11 and Wednesday 12 January at 9 pm, the show will be in Narni at the Teatro Comunale Giuseppe Manini.
A title of great success (the debut edition alone totalled 664 consecutive performances on Broadway), a new translation by Monica Capuani and a surprising cast: Latella returns to American dramaturgy and chooses Albee for a new exploration of language, imagination and feelings.
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? tells the story of a middle-aged couple, Martha and George, who have invited George’s young colleague Nick and his wife Honey to their home. As the alcohol content of the evening rises higher and higher, Martha and George, amidst confessions, lies and accusations, indulge in a growing and whirling game of mayhem, until their guests flee. “I can’t help but start from the title to tackle this text that once again takes me back to America and American dramaturgy – explains the director – A little song that our protagonist scatters throughout the text, which takes up the melody for children, and not only, “Who’s Afraid of the big bad Wolf?”. Fear of the wolf, the wolf that from a very young age is outside the door ready to tear us to pieces, ready to punish us when we do not play by the rules that society imposes on us. And yet, I cannot believe that this choice, in an author as attentive as Edward Albee, is just an intellectual quirk. (…) Virginia Woolf is an author who creates a new way of narrating, a new language. A true visionary, a tireless fighter for female emancipation. Woolf is also present in an idea of narration that concerns Albee himself: ‘Every time death comes in, you have to invent, lie, reconstruct. Death can only be conquered by invention‘. You have to choose to displace death, to overcome depression and fear, perhaps even to anticipate it, just as the great Virginia Woolf did. In order to do all this, I wanted to surround myself with a cast that is not obvious, not predictable, a cast that can displace and add power to what is often summarised as a nocturnal story of sex and alcohol.
To access the theatre, a Super Green Pass and an FFP2 mask are required. You can reserve a ticket by calling 075 5754 2222 every working day from 16 to 20, till the day before the show. Reserved tickets will need to be collected not any later than one hour prior to the show. You can also purchase online on www.teatrostabile.umbria.it
