written and directed by Umberto Marino
with Emilio Solfrizzi
help director Maria Stella Taccone
lights Giuseppe Filipponio
music Paolo Vivaldi
production Argot Produzioni
distribution by Parmaconcerti
in collaboration with Pierfrancesco Pisani
for the costume of Mister Solfrizzi thanks to Sergio Tacchini Icons srl (Livorno) and Anna Coluccia
Teatro Sannazaro
June 27 H 21.00
timing 1 H 15 min
The action takes place entirely on a tennis court and represents an imaginary and tragicomic match between a generic number two and the unrivaled number one of tennis of all time, a champion called Roger.
If you were to take a look at the literary text and then at the theatrical monologue that I drew from it, it would make a big difference with the show that will see: all the realistic apparatus, including props and sound effects, on the scene there is not.
As we put the text together with Emilio Solfrizzi, we realized that we could raise the stakes of our bet by focusing on a representation completely entrusted to the centrality of the word and the actor. I remembered the “cuntastorie”, an archaic form of Sicilian total actor about which tells Pitré, a street actor with three benches for the audience and two swords, unique supports to tell and represent to his audience the whole cycle of panel discussion. So, strong of the interpreter that I had, I began to remove and simplify, until on stage there are only the few white lines that draw a tennis court and two chairs, those on which, in the field changes, the tennis players rest.
As soon as we were able, we started hosting spectators very soon. First two, then four, twelve, thirty, to develop and verify the comic and dramatic effects.
The spectators told us that they had seen the field, the referee, the ball, the racket, the shots and, trusting them, we face a more extensive and demanding verification, hoping that the metaphor, previously hidden and then unveiled, that the text contains in this way find the way to get to the brain and the heart of the public who will share this experience with us.
Umberto Marino
