Theatre lovers can enjoy a year of
literary adaptations for the stage with works by Balzac,
Cervantes, Umberto Eco and Amélie Nothomb among the numerous
titles on the bill.
The season opens at Rome's Studio 1 on January 5 with 'The
Yellow Wallpaper' starring Elena Balestri, a loose adaptation of
the 1892 novel by American feminist author Charlotte Perkins
Gilman.
'Il genio dell'abbandono' directed by Claudio Di Palma on the
life of the Neapolitan sculptor and goldsmith Vincenzo Gemito
(Naples, San Ferdinando from February 22) and 'Lacci' starring
Silvio Orlando (Rome, Eliseo from January 25) are instead stage
adaptations of novels respectively by Wanda Marasco and Domenico
Starnone that made it into the final shortlist for Italy's
prestigious Strega literary prize.
Also not to be missed is 'Ciao' (Florence, Della Pergola from
March 24), inspired by the novel of the same name by former Rome
mayor and original leader of the Democratic Party (PD) Walter
Veltroni. In this stage adaptation written and directed by Piero
Maccarinelli actors Massimo Ghini and Francesco Bonomo engage in
an impossible dialogue between a father, Vittorio, who died
prematurely in the 1950s, and his son, Walter, now in his 60s,
who continues to search for him.
Possibly the most awaited title in this season of literary
adaptations is 'The Name of the Rose' based on the bestseller by
the late Umberto Eco in its first appearance on stage (Turin,
Carignano, from May). The play is written by Stefano Massini and
directed by Leo Muscato, with Luca Lazzareschi, Renato
Carpentieri, Luigi Diberti, Eugenio Allegri, Giulio Baraldi,
Daniele Marmi, Alfonso Postiglione and Marco Zannoni in the
cast.
'Cosmetic of the Enemy' by Belgian author Amélie Nothomb is
another bestseller that is to lend itself to the stage this
season in an adaptation directed by Chiara Noschese (Rome,
Eliseo from April 12).
Sonia Bergamasco directs 'Louise e Renée' starring Federica
Fracassi and Isabella Ragonese (Milan, Piccolo, from March 21),
a stage adaptation of French author Honoré de Balzac's 1841
epistolary novel 'Letters of two brides'.
Then there is 'Circus Don Chisciotte', a homage by Ruggero
Cappuccio on the fourth centenary of the death of Spanish author
Miguel de Cervantes, which fell last year.
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