Naples has forcefully returned to the center of Italian cultural life with fiction such as Mare Fuori, with artists who have success singing in Neapolitan and with 'sold out' at the theater in shows such as It's not true but I believe (Non è vero ma ci credo) it that yesterday it was held in Colleferro.
The play, written by Peppino De Filippo in 1942 and starring Enzo Decaro in the main role of the very avaricious entrepreneur Gervasio Savastano, was staged during the Colleferro theater season and deeply resonated with the audience who often applauded from the scene.
The story is simple and touches all of us a little and is about superstition.
Who among us has not made at least one act of superstition in our life? I can tell you that after the satisfaction of the first engineering exam I decided to wear the same t-shirt for all the other exams. And even in winter I wore it under my sweater.
But if in Colleferro we are a little superstitious, in Naples this state of mind reaches unspeakable points, so much so that the great Peppino de Filippo wrote an admirable comedy there.
And the first scene begins with Enzo Decaro who illustrates his 'Regulations' of misfortune and pontificates that: "Superstition is an exact science!".
The mania with which the protagonist Gervasio Savastano regulates his life according to superstition is paradoxical, so much so that at a certain point I wondered how the comedy would end because the plot had reached moments of inextricable contortion.
But the greatness of the text led us towards a surprising positive ending, so much so that Enzo de Caro concludes the show with the phrase: "being happy is a duty!".
Laura Tibaldi, Luigi de Filippo's last wife and founder of the theater company, attended the entire show in the front row. Laura went on stage at the end of the show and said that the name of the company will be dedicated to Luigi de Filippo who had indicated Enzo Decaro as his successor as artistic director.
Laura Tibaldi also told of her bond with Colleferro where she had accompanied her mother-in-law to see her son Luigi perform for the last time. Sunday afternoons at the theater have become an appointment she is fond of and after all Colleferro is near Rome.
Enzo Decaro also wanted to say a few words on the emotions of the theatre, on the mayor Pierluigi Sanna and on Colleferro at the end of his show. For those who need to refresh their memory, Enzo Decaro was the pioneer of the trio La Smorfia together with Massimo Troisi and Lello Arena.
The energy that we all felt during the entire show was exhilarating and led us to a state of well-being that no one could escape from. So, we in the audience couldn't stop applauding, while Enzo Decaro and Laura Tibaldi couldn't stop talking from the stage.
The last line was dedicated to the superstition and current relevance of the text with a small episode of real life. Enzo said he saw a NASA scientist who, regarding the Voyager's journey into space, said 'knock wood! (the American version of 'knock on wood'): "if even NASA is superstitious, then we mere mortals are forgiven!"
Particular praise goes to director Leo Muscato and the sets by Luigi Ferrigno, who with a small mobile canopy with a transparent wall was able to create different spaces that perfectly matched the text. All the actors were beyond talented and, in addition to Enzo Decaro, we want to mention Carlo Di Maio, Roberto Fiorentino, Carmen Landolfi, Massimo Pagano, Gina Perna, Giorgio Pinto, Ciro Ruoppo, Fabiana Russo and Ingrid Sansone.
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