Pirandello's 6 characters find the author in Colleferro

When I arrived breathless at the Vittorio Veneto theater in Colleferro I didn't imagine I could feel like I was in the center of Rome. In recent years it seemed more like a rented hall than a theater. Instead yesterday the theater bar was lit up and active, the boys in livery accompanied the spectators to their assigned seats and the person in charge of reception (thanks to Sirius Entertainment https://www.facebook.com/people/Sirius-Entertainment/61563144808022/ ?_rdr) was ready to respond to the public's requests.

I felt cuddled!

It was like a sign of the victory of the province over the city: today Colleferro is no longer the Cinderella of the capital. It does not live on reflected light but has its own brilliant life and the number of theater and musical companies that have been born are a testimony to this.

Pirandello's "6 Characters in Search of an Author", a true classic, was performed and the theater was packed: 440 spectators, 300 of whom had subscribed to the entire season chosen directly by the mayor Pierluigi Sanna together with the consolidated ATCL - Theater Association between the Municipalities of Lazio (https://www.atcllazio.it).

Numbers that were unthinkable until a few years ago and that have grown together with the warmth of the welcome. Theater is a living show and the reactions and energy of the audience are felt by the actors who respond immediately from the stage: the audience must feel good to emanate positive energy.

The show flew by. Director Claudio Boccaccini created a modern version of the text with some very interesting innovations. The theater company is of our days with languages ​​and clothes that we all recognized ourselves in, while the characters had remained stuck in 1921 with black clothes and languages ​​of the time. The former were dressed in light colors, the latter in black. The former had daily problems but not existential ones, the latter only existential ones.

I had seen the show many years ago with the great Rossella Falk and Romolo Valli, so I had a faded memory of it although still strong in terms of emotions thanks to these great showmen.

Pirandello was a Nobel Prize winner for literature for having constantly explored the meaning of existence. And in this research, he was able to innovate both the language and the context, such as taking the characters out of the theatrical text to bring them onto the stage and making them live almost autonomously.

Today, kids have seen many films and TV series in which the characters oppose their author, yet Pirandello's text is still very actual and the modernity introduced by the director has made it enjoyable.

Reflections without anguish. Investigating oneself without the fear of getting lost. The character we create of ourselves can also live forever, but we cannot. And I thought of the many 'young' people who start writing the biography of their life before even living it. Many feel the need to get on a stage (especially virtual and digital) to show the character they want to represent.

The stories and reels of social networks are ultimately stories of characters in search of an author. Characters who have distanced themselves from the real person who sometimes appears banal even to themselves.

A round of applause to the director Claudio Boccaccini for having modernized the text making us laugh and managing to ironize on the daily life of the actors of the theater company.

A great Felice della Corte played the role of the father/husband in the 6 characters. His image, his voice and his clothes reminded me of Luigi Pirandello himself and created a further level of reflection. A Pirandello that I found again in my wanderings around Lazio, in fact for some years of his life he lived in the Aniene Valley and went to get coffee in Arsoli, the little Paris, a small but charming village on the border with Abruzzo.

A perfect start to the theatre season to celebrate Colleferro and its first 90 years. See you next time!