On Tuesday, Sept. 8, for the second night of events the Arena Summer Fest presents at 9:30 p. m. a play with the ARCA AZZURRA Company entitled BOTTEGAI a delirium, a reflection, a confession by Ugo Chiti.
The play consists of three monologues that are juxtaposed together following the apparent logic of an amused passage of time. Three stories written at different times, for different occasions that reveal a mutual bond, a series of commonalities, a kind of common overturning of conventions. Thus the word "shopkeepers," this derogatory, this absolutely offensive term, becomes, in designating the three protagonists of the stories a kind of affectionate epithet, full of melancholy humanity in SILVANA and in RUTILIO, and of naïve, stupefied bewilderment in THE PORCILAIA.
Rutilio Canova: a delirium
It is a free adaptation from a Cicognani story, a grotesque sketch, all mixed with vernacular echoes that, in addition to Cicognani, keeps in mind certain amused sarcasms of Palazzeschi. In an early 20th-century landscape, a Florence to be imagined as the most conventional Fratelli Alinari photograph, the obsession of a wealthy shopkeeper is consumed, the eagerness to exhibit a studious son, an intellectual who redeems the "damnation of the store." Rutilio Canova's tragic and ridiculous cravings have recognizable literary roots in the "poetics of buffoons," but at the same time they pertain to a sinister and acrid popular mood.
Silvana: a reflection
Silvana is a character who stands at the center of a well-defined historical landscape. The daughter and, above all, the wife of a shopkeeper, Silvana, lost in quiet agony, traces life from childhood to maturity recording, in barely rancorous accents, the rituals, behaviors and mutations that occurred over a span of time from the 1950s to the late 1980s. Silvana touches on "history" with words that are often smiling and often disappointed. Silvana is a suspended body that now sails in "other waters," a detached and lovingly fierce gaze, the gaze of one who is about to relativize the "furors" of life.
The Pigsty: a confession
Perhaps not coincidentally, in this short monologue, the character's proper name is missing. We are confronted with a "hygienic," very young man of today, a kind of unfamiliar yet earthy creature, banal, single-minded in his cold exposition of facts. The protagonist of The pigsty is a small businessman preoccupied with distancing himself completely from his roots as from a family tradition in order to be more recognizable in the "genetics" of a homogenized and homogenizing society. The flatness of his confession cracks when he is reached by "a dark element" something incomprehensible to his icy, robotic eyes that can no longer recognize the suspended presence of myth.
Admission to the events is FREE, but reservations are required. Access will be granted while places last .
For info and registration
culture office - tel. 055.9125247 - 055.9125253