Review by Natalia Di Bartolo – Simone Migliorini great interpreter of Shakespeare with the dramaturgy of Nicola Fano, in Volterra –
A loud, piercing, continuous sound; an eerie darkness; and from that darkness the appearance of sinuous and mysterious shapes, ambivalent by sex and by role, on which the red blood and the spears affixed to the ground already stand out as a warning of what will be created and expressed in the show. A virtual curtain opens and the music changes until it stops…It looks like the stage of a Greek tragedy and the charm of the place, with the incomparable scenography of the Roman theater of Volterra behind it, marks the start of the miracle of scenic art.
The protagonist is Brutus, the famous creator, with Cassio, of the conspiracy of the Ides of March of 44 BC, the killer of Caesar. He enters the scene calling in a loud voice to Cassio, his alter ego: we are in Philippi, where both conspirators have already fought and lost against the troops of Marco Antonio, who became the guarantor of justice for Caesar and Rome.
A profound suggestion invades the audience, which falls silent in the most religious silence, in front of the incipit of a show that immediately reveals itself as classy. The story written in books materializes on the stage with Shakespeare's words, infinite, immortal, eternal words. The spectator listens, a symbolic field of battle and of the dead appears to him on which Brutus, defeated, wounded, almost dying, crawls and invokes and looks around dazed, shocked at the appearance of the ghost of Caesar.
Brutus is Simone Migliorini, who says, moans, shouts, modulates those sentences of the Shakespearean tragedy and makes them his own, as they were generated, also in the adaptation of Shakespeare's "Giulio Cesare", from the pen of the playwright Nicola Fano, who worked on the text by focusing on the most controversial figure, that of the leader of the conspirators, of Cesare's assassin, specifically for Migliorini, who still studied and deepened the text and characters above it.
"Tu quoque, Brute, fili mi!": these unspoken words resound in the viewer's brain and make him quiver, when, suddenly, Brutus begins to speak with the words of Hamlet, in an interface studied and gutted specifically for this And so, Hamlet, who flowed from the Bard's pen immediately after Julius Caesar, now looks in the mirror and sees Brutus…and viceversa. Both powerful, both assassins, both executioners or executioners? Unsolvable question, but of profound interest, since Hamlet's words seem written for Brutus and those of Brutus for Hamlet. But here Brutus, in the unfolding of the show, also becomes Macbeth, even Henry V, also tyrants, also murderers, soldiers, brave or cowardly, great or infamous, in a flow of words and very famous phrases, sayings, plants, recited, whispered, whispered, shouted by Simone Migliorini who with this test confirms himself as a high-level interpreter.
What is striking is the protagonist's ability to transform himself, from time to time, from Brutus into other characters, even into Marco Antonio. All he needs is a change of costume, on stage. And it is here that Brutus looks Antonio in the eyes and Antonio scrutinizes Brutus, doubled by the same performer in a virtuosity that is extremely congenial to him. The actor is capable of knowing how to be both the one who kills and the one who exalts the killed; the one who is prey to doubts and remorse but is proud of love for Rome and for its freedom and the one who exalts and celebrates the slain Caesar in front of the people, holding his will in his hand, in the famous Oration which has always been a horse of battle of the greatest actors.
Never before had the figure of Brutus been so deeply studied, relived, roughed out and finally sculpted, as in marble. But just the doubling of the character with his rival, at the same time, captures another aspect upside down, this time concerning Marco Antonio. What about him too? Does he stand between tyrants and murderers or between patriots and advocates and defenders of freedom at the cost of shedding blood? This answer is also suspended.
However, nothing in this show is left to chance: a classic compositional system, in terms of dramaturgy, like that of a Greek tragedy, with "episodes", "stasimi", "prologue" and "exodus"; a succession of skilfully crafted scenes, where even the other characters are themselves and immediately afterwards become others, always present, always participating. The only one absent, but constantly present on stage, is Cassio, because his figure, although invisible, is looming, is evoked by the very presence of Brutus. And then here is also Porzia, the delicate, sweet consort of the tyrannicide, capable of killing herself at the news of the defeat of her beloved consort in Philippi; and Calpurnia, consort of the tyrant with mad premonitory nightmares of her; and Caesar himself, stabbed under Pompey's statue, one, two, three…twenty-three times.
The shrewd, intense and elegant direction by Migliorini himself, inclined to the dream, was also fundamental for the success of the show: on the scene there are corpses, but there is no blood, on the scene there are killings, atrocities, but everything is played on force of the word, of the gesture, of the imagination. Cesare himself -effectively played by Marco Olivieri- is killed with simple gestures and his body will be symbolized by a coat/cloak, like the corpse of Brutus further on. Action, symbology, word, in a very suggestive balance between real-imaginary-imagined.
The show winds harmoniously, also equipped with a choral ensemble also from a Greek tragedy, which gives life, in unison, also to the sublime "Song of the people in war", taken from the famous monologue of the first scene of the third act of " Enrico V" and to the choreographic movements, even dance, created by Maestro Aurelio Gatti and entrusted to his assistant, in the role of a sort of mute Corifeo, Laura Giuntoli, trained at the Berlin Opera: a "multidisciplinary show", one would say Today.
The spectator is astonished and enchanted, but the question concerning the true nature of Brutus, which the character himself tries to analyze and investigate unsuccessfully, remains, as predictable and right, at the end of the show, the now millenary and unsolvable question that It has always been.
Produced by the Cultural Association Gruppo Progetto Città/Festival Internazionale Teatro Romano, the show "Bruto per Simon Domenico Migliorini", concluding the XX International Roman Theater Festival, was staged on 5 and 7 August 2022.
Double sold out and heartfelt and prolonged applause, after an hour and a half of great theater, thanks also to the excellent, talented cast: Ilenia Veronica Raimo, also assistant director, in the role of Porzia; Marco Olivieri-Giulio Cesare, as previously mentioned; but also the expressive strength of Ermelinda Çakalli, who was entrusted with the role of Calpurnia, and then Federica Lucia Gurrieri and Davide Raffaello Lauro…From time to time all together in the various interpretations of the conspirators, the people, the servants, the soldiers.
The scenic movements, it has been said, were supervised by a great choreographer like Aurelio Gatti; the suggestive original music, very appreciable, composed in a special soundtrack by David Dainelli, a musician of great talent and sensitivity, the one who writes for almost all of Migliorini's shows; the beautiful costumes, timeless in color and workmanship, designed and created by Gabriella Panza and finally the make-up, curated by a young Albanian make-up artist: Ilda Kapplani.
For this "Brutus", therefore, born under the star of the Art, long luck and many, many replicas are hoped for.
Natalia Dantas ©
XX INTERNATIONAL FESTIVALAND ROMAN THEATER VOLTERRA
as part of the Volterra '22 program First Tuscan City of Culture
“BRUTUS for Simon Domenico Migliorini”
by Nicola Fano, from “Julius Caesar” of Shakespeare
Production Group Project City / Volterra Roman Theater International Festival
Dramatic adaptation and direction by Simon Domenico Migliorini
Assistant director Ilenia Veronica Raimo
Scenic movements Aurelio Gatti
Assistant to stage movements Laura Giuntoli
Original music by David Dainelli
Lighting and audio designer Paolo Morelli
Gabriella Panza costumes
Ilda Kapplani hair and make-up
With
Simon Domenico Migliorini
and
Ermelinda Çakalli, Laura Giuntoli, Federica Gurrieri,
Davide Raffaello Lauro, Marco Olivieri, Ilenia Veronica Raimo
Photo: GIAN Volterra Photographic Group – Deborah Raimo – Paolo Malasoma