PANNYCHIS by Helena Hansen in Volterra

11/08/201811/08/2018Editing by ©dibartolocritic

PANNYCHIS by Helena Hansen in Volterra – XVI International Roman Theater Festival, Greek mythology from a story by Dürenmatt –

By Natalia Di Bartolo

“The Pythia prophesied at random, she prophesied blindly, and since she was equally blindly believed, no one paid any attention if her prophecies almost never came true, or only a few rare times.”

Thus the great Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921-1990) writes about the elected priestess of Apollo at Delphi in his entertaining story from 1976 “The death of the Pythia”, she who in Greek mythology, sitting on her tripod and surrounded by arcane vapors, prophesied to men the will of the gods through solemn prophecies, to which mortals gave absolute weight and credibility. Therefore Dürenmatt "dismantles" a myth, making the Pythia, in particular Pannychis, the last in chronological order, a trickster who improvises oracles at random, according to the mood of the moment, in an ironic but very well structured prank .

Brilliant intuition, absolutely worth taking up for the theatre. And Helena Hansen, pseudonym of Mariagiovanna Rosati Hansen, thought of it with her "Pannychis" of which she also directed, which was staged in Volterra on 3 August 2018 in the program of the XVI International Roman Theater Festival. On stage the actors of the European Theater Institute - Teatro Abarico: Annamaria Guzzio – Paolo Gatti – Camilla Cuparo – Gaia Melani – Clif Imperato – Carlo Coculo.

But Hansen, obviously, put her own spin on it and didn't make it a transposition of the literary work, but a fun "classic comedy", in which the spectator glues himself to the armchair throughout the tight succession of dialogues and events. narrated, with ears wide open, so as not to lose the thread of a story that is intricate and absolutely cultured and well-founded. Very difficult to write such a text, even if it takes inspiration from Dürenmatt, because the plot must also work in the theater, in the characters and in the dialogues and must not be boring.

Far from boredom, for the author's Pannychis: wit and sympathy reigned supreme, seeing Hansen herself on stage in a prologue-dialogue with a young storyteller, a sort of interlocutor/soundtrack on the guitar, which interspersed pieces of Sicilian folklore with the unfolding of the short but intense story.

Those who know Greek mythology have certainly not asked themselves the question of what Sicilian folklore was doing in the midst of all this: it is absolutely a right! Sicily was Magna Graecia and therefore "Great Greece"…ours, but also that of the Greeks who lived in Greece, since it was equally solemn and held in consideration.

Ergo: here we are in Sicily, with the last old Pythia, Pannychis, who is in her corner cleaning the vegetables for the minestrone awaiting a death of which she has not the slightest fear, with an accent that unequivocally characterizes her as being from Palermo. Annamaria Guzzio in the role of the protagonist was almost perfect: she was between the real Pythia, old and tired, and those old village women who read the cards and cheat one after the other, with the gullible people who go to consult them.

Except that here there were no clients, but directly interested parties, that is, those whose lives Pannychis's deceptions had influenced and decided; and what's more already passed away.

Oedipus, first, played with a funny Neapolitan accent (again from Magna Graecia), who is the main subject/victim of the Pythia's carelessness and on which the whole story hinges. Still alive, however, the old Tiresias also shows up and goes to visit Pannychis. And there, one mess after another, a reproach of egregious errors and false prophecies by two of the most authoritative prophetic "soothsayers" of Greek mythology.

The ability to create a thread between two opposing versions of the same story of the Oedipus myth which acts as a pivot to the unfolding of the stage action, one of which is absolutely for experts, is admirable. Culture in profusion, in dissecting even little-known events and stories, such as that of the Sphinx, and in characterizing characters such as Jocasta, mother and wife of Oedipus (the full-blown one).

The real protagonist of the comedy, however, is doubt, the enigma which with its fascination invites mortals to go to Delphi in search of the Truth due to the ancestral need to believe that it exists and is one, immutable and eternal.

Therefore a pleasant and cultured plot, enriched by Sicilian popular songs, which ultimately, as mentioned before, also have their full roots in that mythology and in that context, in particular with the legend of Colapesce.