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Leonardo Lidi
Il gabbiano
Progetto Čechov - prima tappa
Described from The press as "theater in its pure, clean state: a show to which you could accompany a boy who, by his misfortune, had never come here, to make him wish for more evenings like these." Il gabbiano was first staged to Spoleto in 2022 and is the first stage with which director Leonardo Lidi inaugurated his trilogy devoted to Chekhov's great masterpieces.
In The Seagull "the dramaturgy of love and the absence of it, a refined design of characters and emotions, is staged. The relationship between form and art. Between them and us. The audience and its eternal mirror. Individuals never abandoned, undecided about action, lacking muscle, engulfed in the fear of questions and the simplicity of answers. Memories and nostalgia, childhood, the encounter that hurt us and the one that changed our lives. Or made us smile. Or made us cry. Or both at once. This is how Chekhov overcame his time, this is how to use a text to get at life."
directed by Leonardo Lidi
with (in o.to.)
Giordano Agrusta, Maurizio Cardillo, Ilaria Falini, Christian La Rosa, Angela Malfitano, Francesca Mazza, Orietta Notari, Tino Rossi, Massimiliano Speziani, Giuliana Vigogna
scenes and lighting Nicolas Bovey
costumes Aurora Damanti
music and sound Franco Visioli
assistant directors Noemi Grasso
production Teatro Stabile dell'Umbria, ERT / National Theatre, Teatro Stabile di Torino - Teatro Nazionale
in collaboration with Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi
Please be advised that dates and times may be subject to change.
See www.festivaldispoleto.com for updates.
Il gabbiano
Il gabbiano goes on stage for the first time to San Pietroburgo on October 17, 1896. It is a disaster. In the preface to the book Anton Čechov. Life through Letters (Einaudi), Natalia Ginzburg writes, "People laughed at the most dramatic moments. Every sentence was greeted with whistles and deafening screams. The actors acted terrified (the hostility of the audience had to so intimidated the actress Vera Komissarževskaya, in the role of Nina, from made her lose her voice, ed.), each forgot his lines, each was oblivious to his part.
At the end of the second act Chekhov left. He ate something in a restaurant, alone. Then he went to walking through the snow-filled streets. (...) The next day he took a train to Moscow." Three days later, there was a second performance, and it went well. A "colossal success."
But to San Pietroburgo Chekhov did not return. "That evening, with the screaming and the laughter and the booing, he had not erased it from his memory."
Two years later, an old friend of Chekhov's, Nemirovič-Dančenko, a professor of dramatic art, wrote him a letter. With the director and actor Stanislavsky he had founded a theater, called the "Folk Art Theater," which would shortly afterwards change its name to the "Moscow Art Theater." He intended to stage Il gabbiano. Chekhov at first refused, the memory of laughter and booing "still tearing him apart," but eventually agreed. On January 17, 1989, the play debuted at the Art Theater. And it is a triumph.
Čechov succeeds to in being "contemporary" like few other theater writers, because of the themes addressed in his "comedies" and because of that sense of restlessness, of inadequacy -- of being "out of sync," dissonant with his own time -- that his characters convey to us. Today more than ever. Says Leonardo Lidi, actor and director who signs adaptation and direction of the new production of the Teatro Stabile dell'Umbria with ERT / Teatro Nazionale and the Teatro Stabile di Torino - Teatro Nazionale, in collaboration with Festival dei Due Mondi: "Il gabbiano is the text that really made me fall in love with theater, my all-time favorite. It is true, I say this about many plays, but in this work I can to identify everything about theater that fascinates me. The very first approach was with the character of Konstantìn who seeks revolution in classicism: from young acting student it is this aspect that most fascinated me. Today I almost laugh at that me back then; over time the interest shifted to the various characters that inhabit the text and their dynamics. I think of the theme of theater present in Konstantìn and his mother Irina Arkadina, or to that of playwriting in Trigorin. Chekhov speaks to all times and ages of life, and it matters little that the first performance of The Seagull was a resounding failure: it applies to many masterpieces of theater. The real revolutionaries theaters emptied them, see Ibsen with his Spectres or D'Annunzio with The Dead City." Both classics with which Lidi, winner in 2017 of the call for directors under 30 of the Biennale College - Teatro directed from Antonio Latella, has bravely confronted.
Unrequited love is the driving force behindopera. Chekhov writes to about The Seagull to his friend Suvorin on Oct. 21, 1895: "It is a comedy, there are three female parts, six male parts, four acts, a landscape (lake view); much talk about literature, little action, tons of love." Konstantìn desperately longs for the love of his mother, actress Irina Arkadina, but does not receive it; Nina falls in love with novelist Trigorin, Arkadina's lover, with whom she will live for a time to Moscow, before he abandons her to return to the ex; who wants Trigorin's love but has to settle for dominance over him: he loves no one. Lidi is right: "We could end with the first scene of Maša and Medvedenko: Why does she always go dressed in black? It is mourning for my life. I am unhappy. That's all there is to it, like the Jannacci song that accompanied me in the study... At the end of the day, those who love are always defeated, and the defeat of love has such sincerity that it unites most of us." But Il gabbiano is also a'opera metatheatrical, a'opera reflecting on the need for a profound renewal of dramatic writing and stage conception. "Theater cannot be done to less. New forms are needed," Konstantìn and his uncle Sòrin, in whose villa the action takes place, say in the first act. "I don't like to talk about the theater in the theater, for me it is important to always get the message across that we need to make the theater palpitate in our present," Lidi stresses, "to be aware that we work for those who are there, without hiding behind the classic, without fear of going up against criticism. I opted for an unobtrusive rewrite," he continues, "a rewrite that makes everything plausible with respect to to us, trying to keep intact what still resonates in the present: there are authors who need a rewrite to resonate in the present. Chekhov is an exception: he laughs and cries with us; he never laughs at us. He empathizes. He is moved by the tenderness that pains us. He tells me that in the end there is nothing from to win and that no situation can ever be managed to the end, that the control mania that so appeases us is perfectly useless. His greatness lies in keeping us company with the lives of the characters who inhabit his writings."
For Tolstoy, "Chekhov cannot be compared as an artist to any of the other Russian writers, Turgenev, Dostoevsky or myself. Like all impressionists, he possesses a form of his own. We see him inadvertently throw the colors he has to at hand, and we think those strokes of paint have nothing to to do with each other. But as soon as we step back and look from away, the impression is extraordinary: we are confronted to with a dazzling, irresistible painting." Tolstoy touches on a crucial point in Chekhov's aesthetic: his relationship with his readers. Writers such as Turgenev, Goncarov and even, up to to a certain point, Tolstoy himself, address to a passive reader. Chekhov, on the contrary, does not intend to explain anything, only to suggest. He demands the reader's constant cooperation, the goal from himself stated is to guide the reader to to think: "When I write, I focus on the reader, and I count that he will know how to add the subjective elements that are missing from my story himself (...) And why should we explain? Just knock, that's all; then the reader gets interested and starts to thinking again."
Confirms Lidi: "We must never forget the dynamic that Čechov weaves with the spectator, for a director this is fundamental. Čechov's spectators saw in his theater a "new" acting compared to to what they were used to, a young cast capable of surprising the audience: those actors on stage spoke as they did. This should make us reflect not so much on a cinematic aspect of the text but on what it means to be a spectator of one's own life, active or passive."
Text by Laura Zangarini
He graduated from the School of the Teatro Stabile of Turin in 2012. In his path he alternates between acting and theater directing. In these first ten years of directing work he stands out for his ability and productivity, winning to just 32 years old the Italian theater critics' award. Since September 2021 he has been teaching coordinator of the school of the Teatro Stabile di Torino and since 2022 Artistic Director of the San Ginesio Festival. Among the shows from he directed are. Spettri di Ibsen (Venice Biennale 2018), Williams' The Glass Zoo, Lorca's La casa di Bernarda Alba , D'Annunzio's La città morta, Strindberg's La signorina Giulia (Festival dei Due Mondi 2021) and Molière's Il Misantropo. He also works on contemporary drama texts and inopera opera. In 2022 together with the Teatro Stabile dell'Umbria he begins a trilogy on Anton Čechov. First stage of the three-year project is. Il gabbiano. In the same year he is a finalist candidate for the Ubu Prize for Best Director with La signorina Giulia. In 2023 he directs . Zio Vanja, the second stage of the Čechov Project, a play with which he is a finalist candidate for best director at the Ubu 2023. The last chapter of the trilogy is The Cherry Orchard (2024).
Giordano Domenico Agrusta
Born in 1984 to Grottaglie in the province of Taranto. After graduation he left for Milan where he studied Philosophy and specialized in Cognitive Neuroscience. After his studies, he moved to Terni in 2008 to study acting with Gastone Moschin, Emanuela Moschin and Marzia Ubaldi. He founded the company Malabranca Teatro, with Daniele Menghini, Ludovico Rohl and Cristina Daniele. In 2015 he joined to the actors company of the Teatro Stabile dell'Umbria. He works with Nigrelli, Placido, Baracco. He collaborates with several private companies and theatrical production bodies, including Marche Teatro, Teatri di Roma, Teatro alla Scala. Since 2018 she has been part of the cast of Mattia Torre's play 456 and for cinema she worked in Palazzina Laf directed by Michele Riondino. He is in the cast of the Čechov Project directed from Leonardo Lidi: Il gabbiano (2022), Zio Vanja (2023), The Cherry Orchard (2024).
Maurizio Cardillo
Sicilian, he is an actor/author. After several years of experience as a comedian in both theater and television (Duo Cardillo and Cattaruzza, regular guest in varieties such as Lupo Solitario, Italia 1 or Il Sabato dello Zecchino, Rai1) he has worked with Teatro dell'Elfo, Teatri di Vita, Renato Carpentieri, Elena Bucci, Gigi Dall'Aglio, Nanni Garella, Teatro Stabile di Bolzano, ErosAntEros, interspersing these experiences with writing and performing in shows produced from Teatro Stabile di Bologna /Ert, including La Deriva and Il Male Oscuro, inspired by Giuseppe Berto'sopera . From 2007 to 2019 he participated to several shows of the company Le Belle Bandiere. He collaborates permanently as an actor and author with Francesca Mazza and Angela Malfitano's ensemble Tra un Atto e l'Altro. He is in the cast of the Čechov Project directed from Leonardo Lidi: Il gabbiano (2022), Zio Vanja (2023), The Cherry Orchard (2024).
Ilaria Falini
A graduate of the University Theater Center of Perugia, she continued her training with directors Schiavelli, Pezzoli, Santagata and Ronconi under whose direction she attended the Course of Excellence at the Santa Cristina Theater Center. She began her professional career working with the Teatro Stabile dell'Umbria and then with Teatro di Roma, Teatro Due di Parma, Teatro Nazionale di Genova, Teatro Nazionale di Torino working with directors Bruschetta, Carpentieri, Zavatteri, Le Moli, Dini and Pepe, among others. She works in TV and cinema directed, among others, by director Paola Cortellesi in the film C'è ancora domani. In 2021 she began her collaboration with director Leonardo Lidi with La signorina Giulia di Strindberg and was subsequently cast in the Chekhov Project: Il gabbiano (2022), Zio Vanja (2023), The Cherry Orchard (2024).
Christian La Rosa
He graduated in 2012 from the school for actors of the Teatro Stabile of Turin, then attended the international theater workshop directed from Ronconi. In theater he works with Rifici, Malosti, Sgorbani, Chiodi, Ferracchiati, among others. In 2016 he is in Santa Estasi. Atridi: eight family portraits directed from Latella and in Qualcuno che tace directed by Lidi. With the role of Pinocchio (Latella) in 2017 he wins the UBU as best actor under 35 and the ANCT award. In 2018 he is in Spectres (Lidi); in 2019/20 in The Valley of Eden (Latella) and in The Dead City (Lidi). He stars in Mingarelli's Animali domestici in 2021 and returns with Lidi for La signorina Giulia and Il misantropo. Recent engagements in theater include Ortoleva's Dramma industriale, Rifici's La pulce nell'orecchio and Gassmann's The city. He is in the cast of the Čechov Project directed from Leonardo Lidi: Il gabbiano (2022), The Cherry Orchard (2024).
Angela Malfitano
Actress and director, began to working with Leo De Berardinis, her mentor, to followed by Salmon, Jodorowsky, Morganti, Fo, Adriatico, Arcuri, Sgrosso, Baliani, Sorrentino, Lenton. He won the Young European Artists Award in 1992. In 1999 he founded Tra un atto e l'altro with Francesca Mazza and directs productions and reviews also in the areas of social and gender culture. He curates theater projects with networks of artists and collaborates as a lecturer with Unipv and Unibo. He produces contemporary dramaturgy about outstanding figures of the territory with Regione Emilia Romagna, Città Metropolitana di Bologna, Cineteca di Bologna and Emilia Romagna Teatro Fondazione: Concetto Pozzati, Vittorio Boarini. He is in the cast of the Čechov Project directed from Leonardo Lidi: Il gabbiano (2022), Zio Vanja (2023), The Cherry Orchard (2024).
Francesca Mazza
A graduate of the School directed from Alessandra Galante Garrone, from 1983 to 1995 she worked in Leo de Berardinis' shows. Later, among others, she worked with the company Fanny & Alexander, with Teatri di Vita, with Accademia degli Artefatti, with Teatro stabile del Veneto, Teatro stabile di Roma, Teatro stabile di Torino, ERT Emilia Romagna Teatri, Radiotre Rai. She won the Ubu Award as best supporting actress for the 2004/2005 season. In 2010, she won the Ubu Award as best leading actress with West and the Ravenhill project shows Shoot/Find the Treasure/Repeat. She was directed from Leonardo Lidi in La casa di Bernarda Alba, in Il misantropo di Molière. She is in the cast of the Chekhov Project directed from Lidi: Il gabbiano (2022), Zio Vanja (2023), The Cherry Orchard (2024).
Orietta Notari
She graduated from the Acting School of the Teatro Stabile of Genoa. She has acted in plays by major authors of classical and contemporary drama including Shakespeare, Molière, Sophocles, Racine, Ibsen, Labiche, Brecht, Pirandello, Beckett, Pinter, Fassbinder, Topor, Fosse. She has been directed by, among others, from Besson, Ronconi, Sciaccaluga, Stuhr, Arias, Dini, Binasco, Lidi. In 2006 she was nominated for the UBU Award as supporting actress; in 2016 she won the ANCT National Association of Theater Critics Award; in 2023 she won the Le Maschere del Teatro Italiano Award as best supporting actress. In past seasons she has worked in Ibsen's A Doll's House and August to Letts' Osage County, directed by Dini; in Friel's Molly Sweeney and Pirandello's The Pleasure of Honesty, directed by Binasco; Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba, Moliere's The Misanthrope and Medea from Euripides, directed by Lidi. He is in the cast of the Čechov Project directed from Lidi: Il gabbiano (2022), The Cherry Orchard (2024).
Tino Rossi
Born in 1955 in the province of Piacenza, he began to doing theater in 1980 to Cremona with a local company. In 1987 he started to his own company Quarta Parete, still active today, collaborating with other companies in the area. In 1993 he graduates as a voice actor at the Centro Teatro Attivo in Milan. He takes part to in numerous theater stages, among many: with Carmelo Rifici, Cesar Brie, Armando Punzo, Serena Sinigaglia, Massimo Popolizio, Salvatore La Ruina and Michele Di Mauro. He has collaborated to plays with Carmelo Rifici and Leonardo Lidi and has taken part in a number of films, including a film by Marco Bellocchio. He is in the cast of the Chekhov Project directed from Lidi: Il gabbiano (2022), Zio Vanja (2023), The Cherry Orchard (2024).
Massimiliano Speziani
Hystrio Award for Interpretation 2018. Plays directed by, among others, from Cobelli, Ronconi, Castri, Pezzoli, Tiezzi, Martone, Rifici, Latella. He has worked with Santagata's Katzenmacher company with which he received the UBU in 1997. Self produces Il Memorioso, Brief Guide to the Memory of Good which he replicates from more than ten years. During the lockdown he creates the experience of Teatro in Condominio and is born Nessun Miracolo to Milano text by Gabrielli. Among his latest works as an actor: The Tragedy of the Avenger (Donnellan), The Valley of Eden (Latella), Combatants and Procedures texts by Gabrielli, You have not yet been defeated, staged reading in collaboration Festival Colline Torinesi and TSU (2023). He is in the cast of the Čechov Project directed from Lidi: Il gabbiano (2022), Zio Vanja (2023), The Cherry Orchard (2024).
Giuliana Vigogna
She graduated in 2014 from the Silvio d'Amico Academy of Dramatic Art in Rome; she then attended the advanced training course at the Centro Teatrale Santacristina and the specialization course at the Teatro di Roma. In 2016 Antonio Latella chose her for Santa Estasi (Ubu prize for best show and best group of actors under 30). She collaborates with ERT for The Book of Job directed by Babina and 1984 directed from Lenton; in 2018 she is Daphne in Latella's Aminta. In 2019 she begins her collaboration with Leonardo Lidi for Il dito, La città morta and Il lampadario, La casa di Bernarda Alba, La signorina Giulia, Il Misantropo. In 2022 she wins the Virginia Reiter Award for Best Actress Under35 and is a finalist in the Ubu Awards for Best Actress or Performer Under35. In 2024 she is directed from Andrea Baracco in Mephisto. She is in the cast of the Chekhov Project: Il gabbiano (2022), Zio Vanja (2023), The Cherry Orchard (2024).
Leonardo Lidi
Leonardo Lidi
Isabelle Adjani
Leonardo Lidi
Antonio Latella
