Friday, March 16, 2007

Italian Monologues With a Political Message - New York Times:

Interview the Italian actor Ascanio Celestini and be prepared for a torrent of words, a verbal tsunami.

That is, after all, how he makes his living: Alone on a bare stage, bringing to life minor, uncelebrated protagonists of Italian history. Like the man who stoked a smelting furnace in Terni for 30 years, or the Roman electrician deported to work in a German factory during World War II, or the patient who leaves a mental asylum after 35 years and heads for a shopping mall.

There are few sets or props, just Celestini's ceaseless patter concocting vivid characters who tell their life stories - which are usually tragedies - in a semi- improvised form.


1:30 PM