Carmelo Rifici stages a play that tells of the stubborn rivalry between power and irrationality, now as it was then. A company of young actors take on one of Shakespeare’s great classics, bringing it in line with present times.
Carmelo Rifici entrusts one of William Shakespeare’s most famous plays to the company of young actors that he trained at the Piccolo Academy of Theatre. «I thought of the Dream – he explained – for the wealth of the roles it offers, for the age of the characters, close to that of the actors, but above all for the countless interpretations that it offers. Often presented simply as a story of magic, night-time chases and unrequited love, in my opinion the Dream is more a work in which Shakespeare tells us of the obsession that the powers have to expel whatever is monstrous, foreign and diverse; whatever terrorises them for its apparent ungovernability. In an impossible attempt to create harmony between opposites, a male despot faces off against a female element that is constantly subject to violence, the order of Athens is reflected in the chaos of the forest, while the driving force of sexuality is “domesticated” through marriage. The dramaturgy by Riccardo Favaro – which is interwoven within the pages of the original, focusing on the themes and developing certain characters – brings crisis to a tradition that tends to repeat without ever changing, rendering it complicated to celebrate.»
The show makes use of high volume sound effects and stroboscopic lights
Duration: 220’ including an intermission
Contacts
Carmelo Rifici entrusts one of William Shakespeare’s most famous plays to the company of young actors that he trained at the Piccolo Academy of Theatre. «I thought of the Dream – he explained – for the wealth of the roles it offers, for the age of the characters, close to that of the actors, but above all for the countless interpretations that it offers. Often presented simply as a story of magic, night-time chases and unrequited love, in my opinion the Dream is more a work in which Shakespeare tells us of the obsession that the powers have to expel whatever is monstrous, foreign and diverse; whatever terrorises them for its apparent ungovernability. In an impossible attempt to create harmony between opposites, a male despot faces off against a female element that is constantly subject to violence, the order of Athens is reflected in the chaos of the forest, while the driving force of sexuality is “domesticated” through marriage. The dramaturgy by Riccardo Favaro – which is interwoven within the pages of the original, focusing on the themes and developing certain characters – brings crisis to a tradition that tends to repeat without ever changing, rendering it complicated to celebrate.»
The show makes use of high volume sound effects and stroboscopic lights
Duration: 220’ including an intermission
Credits
Sogno di una notte di mezza estate
(commento continuo)
by William Shakespeare / Riccardo Favaro
directed by Carmelo Rifici
sets Paolo Di Benedetto
costumes Margherita Baldoni
lighting Manuel Frenda
movements Alessio Maria Romano
music Federica Furlani
director’s assistant Ugo Fiore
with Giacomo Antonio Maria Albites Coen, Andrea Bezziccheri, Agnese Sofia Bonato, Clara Bortolotti, Stefano Carenza, Bianca Castanini, Simone Pietro Causa, Giada Francesca Ciabini, Miruna Cuc, Simona De Leo, Silvia Di Cesare, Daniele Di Pietro, Marco Divsic, Ion Donà, Ioana Miruna Drajneanu, Cecilia Fabris, Joshua Isaiah Maduro, Pasquale Montemurro, Sofia Amber Redway, Edoardo Sabato, Caterina Sanvi, Pietro Savoi, Simone Severini, Lorenzo Vio
a Piccolo Teatro di Milano – Teatro d’Europa production
The show makes use of high volume sound effects and stroboscopic lights