|
|
|
|
|
|
ITALIAN NIGHT
Ödön von Horváth
Directed by Paolo Magelli
Opening night: 27 November 2004
Running time approx: 2h 20min
|
|
 Cast and crew |
| About the author |
| About the director |
| Press reviews |
|
Cast:
COUNCILLOR AMMETSBERGER Bogdan Diklic
KARL Nebojsa Glogovac
MARTIN Nikola Djuricko
BETZ Boris Milivojevic
KRANZ Nikola Vujovic
LANDLORD Josif Tatic
THE MAJOR Goran Susljik
CZERNOWITZ Marko Janjic
THE UNKNOWN Mirjana Karanovic
ADELE Tamara Vuckovic
ANNA Sonja Kolacaric
LENI Radmila Tomovic
FRAU HINTERBERGER Radmila Radovanovic
PROSTITUTE/ LEIMSIEDER TWINS Ana Stefanovic
PROSTITUTE/ LEIMSIEDER TWINS Maja Nosovic
MARTIN'S COMPANY: Jelena Mrca, Ivan Isailovic, Veselin Ilic
MARTIN'S COMPANY BEND: Aleksandar Arsic (tuba), Branko Markovic
(bas guitar), Srdjan Markovic(piano), Rados Sapin (drums)
FASCISTS / ORKESTRE: Jovan Savic (tuba), Predrag Nedeljkovic
(clarinet), Mladen Lukic (trombone), Ivan Platner (trombone),
Zoltan Lukasevic (tuba), Marko Peric (grand kasa), Aleksandar
Radulovic (side-drum)
Translated by Bosko Milin
Adapted by Paolo Magelli, Morana Foretic
Set design Hans Georg Schäfer
Costume design Leo Kulas
Composer Ljupco Konstantinov
Dramaturge Marina Milivojevic Madjarev
Scenic movement Vladimir Logunov
Collaborator to the director Morana Foretic
top |
|
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ödön von Horváth (Susak, 9 December 1901 ? Paris, 7 June 1938), a Central European German-speaking writer. He liked to say: "I was born in Rijeka, grew up in Belgrade, Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna and Munich, I have a Hungarian passport - but - homeland ? That is not familiar to me." He loved the way of life in Berlin during the late twenties of the 20th century, but as the Nazism grew in strength, he left Germany, and his plays, though popular, were taken off the repertoire of German theatres in 1933. During his short life he wrote a number of short stories, several novels (The Eternal Philistine, A Child Of Our Time, Youth Without God) and plays: Tales From the Vienna Woods, Don Juan Comes Back From the War, Kazimir and Carolina, Italian Night, Figaro Gets Divorced, At the Nice View, Faith, Hope and Charity, The Murder In Moor Street, The, Sleep, My Little Bride, The Trivial Love Story, The Serenade, The Case of Ela Wald
top
|
|
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR:
Paolo Magelli was born in Prato, in the centre of Tuscany.
His development as an artist was influenced by his teacher Giorgio
Strehler, whom he assisted. In the beginning of the seventies,
together with Roberto Begnini, Pamela Viloresi, Marciello Bartoli
he founded "Teatro studio del Teatro Metastasio",
in which they studied cultures of regions they were less familiar
with. He directed in almost all regions of former Yugoslavia,
and also in Germany, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and
South America. He lives between Dresden and Zagreb, in which
he settled at the end of 1985. His first theatrical acquaintance
with a text by Ödön von Horváth took place in Atelier 212, where
he directed the play At the Nice View, after which he proceeded
to direct the works by von Horváth. This is his first direction
of Italian Night.
top
|
|
PRESS REVIEWS
And this is the real story of this play, which seems to have been written in Belgrade today or yesterday! Only the names of the political parties skirmishing over the forming of coalitions are different and the outcome - surrender of the power to the Nazis - does not sound same as the voluntary surrender of the power into the wrong hands which is going to take place here. Apart from this, everything is same as in the time Ödön von Horváth speaks of.
And now there comes the form in which Magelli has clothed this night of carnival, this masked ball. The masks covering other masks are taken off and put on again, only to be pulled off once more and trampled on in a cruel game of exposure and accusation for the great crime ? surrender of power to the Nazis, served up on a silver platter. The set design by Georg Schäfer shows a huge supply or draining channel - a sewage outlet tube which as a huge mouth throws up, directly onto the stage, both characters and things. This silly slide of history and events brings different reversals, and in the end, naturally, everything is resolved simply, by death. Yes - this is the message of Ödön von Horváth, and it is passed on to us by our true and sincere friend Paolo Magelli and all the Belgrade actors and the actresses on the stage. The leader of this successful team of Yugoslav Drama Theatre was Bogdan Diklic playing the role of a corrupt and incompetent, aged and sleepy Democratic Senator. He was heading this rich and playful procession of actors and dominated it by his complex and rich acting characterized by well adjusted contrasts.
The Silly Slide of History, Goran Cvetkovic, Reporter, 8th December 2004
The Italian Night in the Yugoslav Drama Theatre is certainly a sequence of vehement black and red pictures heavily underlined with irony, an analysis, assemblage and dismantling of the political mind and consciousness soaked with mimicry Although, at first sight, this is a typical of men, masculine performance, there is another, deeper and tragic dimension to it, given by the maturely and boldly played female characters: Leni by Radmila Tomovic, Adela by Tamara Vuckovic, Ana by Sonja Kolacaric, the Stranger by Mirjana Karanovic, Frau Hinterberger by Radmila Radovanovic It is not easy to gain intimate understanding of this performance. It is soaked with bitterness, Voltairean rage and the question whether stupidity and the provincial mentality are really so powerful, eternal and invincible! And life, what is it?
A Group of Left and Right Wing Tricksters, Muharem Pervic, Politika 6th December 2004
First of all, Italian Night is, in Magellis handwriting, a gloomy grotesque, a black political cabaret, through which pass characters that slightly remind of Lucifer and in which scenes of sexual exhibitionism underline the dark perversity of the atmosphere. On the broken stage which is at the same time a park, an inn and a political platform, with musical adaptation by Ljupco Konstantinov and live music for the permanent funeral, expressionistically underlined scenes of real events mix with phantasmagorias of a social class which is falling apart. Italian Night goes on in a slow and sluggish rhythm, but behind this funereal atmosphere one can feel the huge energy of the whole cast led by the three experienced actors who have wide experience and a dominating gesture: Mirjana Karanovic, Bogdan Diklic and Nebojsa Glogovac.
All in all, Italian Night, which perhaps does not offer anything especially new aesthetically, is needed in a society of historically low capacity, situated between the Drava and the Morava, characterized by a democratic schizophrenia, in which the will for weakness is nowadays the most vital social power.
The Pillars of Silence, Bojan Munjin, Feral Tribune, 2 December 2004
top
|
|
|
|
|
