{"id":142,"date":"2017-04-02T19:29:21","date_gmt":"2017-04-02T19:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/15\/?p=142"},"modified":"2023-06-03T08:03:01","modified_gmt":"2023-06-03T08:03:01","slug":"how-southern-dialects-convey-the-sense-of-theatre-in-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/15\/how-southern-dialects-convey-the-sense-of-theatre-in-italy\/","title":{"rendered":"How Southern Dialects Convey the Sense of Theatre in Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Claudia Provvedini<\/strong>*<\/a><\/p>\n

At Piccolo Teatro of Milan: Sorelle Macaluso \/ Operetta burlesca<\/em> by Emma Dante; Sanghenapule <\/em>by Mimmo Borrelli and Roberto Saviano; Masculu e Fi\u00e0mmina<\/em> by Saverio La Ruina; Bestie di scena<\/em> by Emma Dante.<\/p>\n

For a few seasons now, Italy has produced and staged shows with intense\u00a0dramaturgical texts that are almost entirely written and recited in some southern Italian dialects, ancient but currently spoken by people. And their big success, even in prestigious venues that\u00a0traditionally offer a classic program in the officially spoken Italian language, surprises me as\u00a0a theatre critic and makes me think.<\/p>\n

Three works hosted and\/or produced in recent years by the most important\u00a0Italian theatre company, and one highly recognized institution in Europe and all over the world, the Piccolo Teatro\u00a0of Milan, are indicative not only of a consistent artistic trend, but also of an\u00a0interesting social and cultural openness of the public.<\/p>\n

These are: a diptych directed by Emma Dante, Sorelle Macaluso \/ Operetta\u00a0burlesca<\/em> in Sicilian; a narrative in poetic form written and played by Mimmo Borrelli and Roberto Saviano Sanghenapule<\/em>, in Neapolitan; an emotional monologue by Saverio La Ruina,\u00a0Masculu e Fi\u00e0mmina<\/em>, in the Calabrian dialect.<\/p>\n

I will start with the last, Male and Female<\/em>, created and staged in December 2016. This was\u00a0perhaps the most difficult of these shows, for the use of a\u00a0dialect that is not only geographically limited to the regions of Calabria and Basilicata, but is also lacking historical links to a theatrical tradition, in contrast to the Neapolitan one.<\/p>\n

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Masculu e Fi\u00e0mmina<\/em>. Photo: Masiar Pasquali<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A man confesses his homosexuality before the tomb of his mother, under the falling\u00a0snow, exploring for the first time his sense of exclusion and loneliness. The presence of snow and tomb is important, because the actor and author,\u00a0Saverio La Ruina, converses with them more than with himself, and his words are\u00a0channeled through gestures that express simple actions, such as putting flowers on the funeral stone or which convey actual physical sensations, from cold\u00a0to\u00a0fear. The dialect, spoken clearly and slowly, becomes, therefore,\u00a0a vehicle for understanding the rhythm, the sound and the vocal style, rather than for a possible\u00a0transmission of words and ideas: it becomes the deep voice\u00a0of sensations and feelings\u00a0“under the\u00a0skin.”\u00a0Also, the audience born in Northern Italy, like me, understands almost everything, because\u00a0the story is strong, piercing, and involves the viewer \u201cfrom deep under.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sanghenapule<\/em>. Photo: CevaValla<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Next in chronological order comes Sanghenapule<\/em> (Blood of Naples<\/em>), re-staged in January 2017, after its debut in 2016, by the co-authors: actor Mimmo Borrelli and writer\u00a0Roberto Saviano, the latter well known for his novels about the Camorra, the Neapolitan\u00a0mafia. In the play, both are witnesses\u2014the former with a spectacular way of performing, the other with the\u00a0documented story of an ancient cult, that of Saint Gennaro, whose blood liquefies\u00a0before the eyes of his believers during the lavish annual celebration of the Saint, also\u00a0patron of Naples. Again, while Saviano\u2019s narrative runs smoothly in Italian\u00a0as an explanation of the contradictions of the historical and social reality of Naples,\u00a0the strength of Borrelli\u2019s gestures become primal word (verbum<\/em>), visceral, understandable for its\u00a0onomatopoeic sounds and colors evoked by visionary images rather than concepts.<\/p>\n

Finally, I must mention the outraged and helpless world of\u00a0the\u00a0creatures of Emma Dante, author and director of her plays and recently directing operas, including a\u00a0revolutionary Carmen<\/em>, in 2015, conducted by Daniel Barenboim, which opened the season at La\u00a0Scala in Milan to great controversy. Above all, that secret Sicilian world becomes\u00a0evident in Le Sorelle Macaluso<\/em> (The Macaluso Sisters),<\/em> the story of seven sisters who, in a unique\u00a0relationship with their fascinating father (the actor Carmine Maringola), relive episodes of violence, of deep and intimidating social exclusion, up until the death of one of\u00a0them, Antonella, due to the tragic and, perhaps, subconsciously deliberate carelessness of the others.<\/p>\n

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Macaluso<\/em>. Photo: Maringola<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The physicality of the characters is so declared, open and ostentatious that it rarely\u00a0overshadows their dialogues in\u00a0Palermo dialect, showing the urgency of communicating through the body. The\u00a0strength of the plays of Emma Dante\u2014from the first astonishing M\u2019Palermu<\/em> in 2001 to the shocking\u00a0Carnezzeria<\/em> till Le Pulle <\/em>in 2009\u2014is entrusted to the total live presence of the actors, which the director\u00a0and author shapes on stage up to full possession.<\/p>\n

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Bestie di scena<\/em>. Photo: Masiar Pasquali<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Bestie di scena<\/em>. Photo: Masiar Pasquali<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If theatre using dialect to express itself aims at starting from deep roots, from the\u00a0origin of evils reported through a non-official language, its potential is that of reaching out\u00a0to the collective unconscious of the viewer, to solicit understanding, not\u00a0through thinking and rationality, but the sensuality of sounds and irrational\u00a0projections, beyond the boundaries of language, into pure emotion.<\/p>\n

Video<\/h6>\n