A senseless hatred, a young and rebellious love witnessed only by nature, an epidemic that follows unclear rules; this reading by Mario Martone, here directing his first play for the Piccolo, highlights a number of surprising points of contact between Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and our present.
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Teatro Strehler
For his first time directing a play at the Piccolo, Mario Martone has chosen Romeo and Juliet, the tragedy of the Veronese lovers that William Shakespeare wrote between 1594 and 1596 and set in the 1500s, in the midst of the Italian Renaissance.
At the heart of the text is love, as sudden and intense as it can be between two adolescents, and rendered even stronger by adversity, with a driving urge to cancel any obstacle that stands in its way. It is a fable, with all the trimmings - magic potions, the trials of the two lovers, exile, the main character’s allies and enemies, the arranged marriage, duels... - but without the happy ending.
More than four centuries later, the themes of the work are significantly central to our daily lives: “We present a world ruled by senseless conflict, in which the very meaning of existence appears to lie in conflict - explains Martone -. A plague that renders the delivery of a letter impossible, while people continue to party. An innocent and rebellious love that suddenly emerges to escape all of this. A love illuminated exclusively by the light of the moon and of the dawn, with only the birds to witness it. Nature, ever present, awaiting a change that will never come”.
For his version of this extremely popular work that has been revisited for the theatre, cinema, opera and ballet, Martone has chosen a company of young actors accompanied by a number of theatrical professionals.
Duration: 2 hours and 50 minutes without interval
Learn more
Booklet
ReadFor his first time directing a play at the Piccolo, Mario Martone has chosen Romeo and Juliet, the tragedy of the Veronese lovers that William Shakespeare wrote between 1594 and 1596 and set in the 1500s, in the midst of the Italian Renaissance.
At the heart of the text is love, as sudden and intense as it can be between two adolescents, and rendered even stronger by adversity, with a driving urge to cancel any obstacle that stands in its way. It is a fable, with all the trimmings - magic potions, the trials of the two lovers, exile, the main character’s allies and enemies, the arranged marriage, duels... - but without the happy ending.
More than four centuries later, the themes of the work are significantly central to our daily lives: “We present a world ruled by senseless conflict, in which the very meaning of existence appears to lie in conflict - explains Martone -. A plague that renders the delivery of a letter impossible, while people continue to party. An innocent and rebellious love that suddenly emerges to escape all of this. A love illuminated exclusively by the light of the moon and of the dawn, with only the birds to witness it. Nature, ever present, awaiting a change that will never come”.
For his version of this extremely popular work that has been revisited for the theatre, cinema, opera and ballet, Martone has chosen a company of young actors accompanied by a number of theatrical professionals.
Duration: 2 hours and 50 minutes without interval
Learn more
Booklet
ReadMeetings and insights
Credits
sound Hubert Westkemper
video Alessandro Papa
assistant director Raffaele Di Florio
direction assistants Giulia Sangiorgio, Michele Bottini
casting Paola Rota
with (in alphabetical order) Alessandro Bay Rossi, Gabriele Benedetti, Leonardo Castellani, Michele Di Mauro, Raffaele Di Florio, Emanuele Maria Di Stefano, Francesco Gheghi, Jozef Gjura, Lucrezia Guidone, Licia Lanera, Anita Serafini, Benedetto Sicca, Alice Torriani
and with Leonardo Arena, Giuseppe Benvegna, Francesco Chiapperini, Carmelo Crisafulli, Giacomo Gagliardini, Hagiar Ibrahim, Francesco Nigrelli, Libero Renzi, Federico Rubino
and with the students of the Corso Claudia Giannotti della Scuola di Teatro Luca Ronconi del Piccolo Teatro di Milano
Clara Bortolotti, Giada Ciabini, Ion Donà, Cecilia Fabris, Sofia Amber Redway, Caterina Sanvi, Edoardo Sabato, Simone Severini
recorded voice Michele Bottini
a Piccolo Teatro di Milano – Teatro d’Europa production
Tickets
Category of performance Piccolo Production
Stalls full price € 40 | Discounted (under 26 and over 65) € 23
Balcony full price € 32 | Discounted (Under 26 and over 65) € 20
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