![The Besta doctors transform into actors and put Mary Poppins on stage The Besta doctors transform into actors and put Mary Poppins on stage](https://media.famigliacristiana.it/2024/5/33-_3413945.jpg)
Music and magic with Mary Poppins and Bert, alias Veronica Radaelli and Fabio Moda, respectively neuro-oncologist and biotechnologist researcher of the Irccs Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta Foundation in Milan, excellence of our country in the field of neuroscience. They are the ones who brought to life the super nanny and the chimney sweep, evergreen protagonists of the famous Walt Disney film, on 18 and 19 May on the stage of the Silvestrianum Theater (previously already sold out) and on 6 June, in repeat, at the Teatro Lirico Giorgio Gaber . They are the ones who teach us that there is an abysmal difference between being a doctor and being a doctor. Which is the same that exists between those who see their work as a mission, because they couldn’t do anything else in life, and those who only make their skills and CV available to others. The company has a name: Besta on stage. And it brings together a group of professionals linked, some by work, some by friendship, some for family reasons, to the Besta Foundation. The proceeds from the evenings will be donated to the CBDIN OdV Association, which has been operating in the Institute for almost a hundred years and which has supported the Department of Pediatric Neurosciences of the Milanese center since 1960. The objective is to raise funds for the study of childhood brain tumors and innovative personalized therapies, in particular for the purchase of machinery or laboratory material useful for the study of the molecular genetics of brain tumors and to give new hope for a cure.
“Everything is possible. Even the Impossible” is the title of the show that revisits the 1964 film, with a modern Mary Poppins (but always with the inevitable umbrella). “I liked the idea of doing something for children, which was also beautiful for them to watch and which also involved ours, because many of us are parents. I readjusted the script so that it made sense with the Carmina Burana music chosen by Doctor Moda, who despite his numerous commitments always finds time for the musical arrangement. Compared to Christopher Tin’s The Dream of Flying, a very difficult piece for five voices, Carmina Burana is almost a glass of water. They are slightly alternative pieces compared to Mary Poppins as we know her. I also modernized the story: fortunately the suffragettes are no longer needed and mother Banks, who is played by a child neuropsychiatrist, has become a director of flash mobs around London, while the children, who no longer play the same pranks, they experience the great drama of electronic devices. Mary Poppins and dad Banks, however, remain who they are in a world that evolves around them”, says Veronica Radaelli, who, in addition to being on stage, is the artistic director and director of the musical, while Fabio Moda is also director of the “Ida Milanesi” choir.
At the heart of the musical is the theme of time. “The money of the family is that of the children, which must be precious and spent in the best possible way. The film, however, was built on parental time: dad Banks never had time for his children.” Time that becomes precious especially in hospital. “Besta is quality not only in scientific, technological, clinical and therapeutic choices, but also in the care relationship between doctor and patient. The patient is not a number, he does not come to us and in each clinic, as often happens, he finds a different doctor. The patient is my patient, he will always find me at visits and, if he is followed by my colleagues, he will always find the same colleague who knows his story. A personal relationship is created that goes beyond the patient. It applies to all neurology, it applies to all of Besta. We are neuro-oncologists: sometimes too short a relationship is established with even young patients. Glioblastoma, which is one of the brain tumors we face most often, gives a very limited survival. It is difficult both humanly and from a therapeutic point of view.” But if she could go back, Dr. Radaelli would do this job a million times again: “It takes the skin off me, but it gives me a lot. When someone enters the ward for the first time and puts on the lab coat, if he is willing to learn, he will find himself a different person. You have to have an open heart.”
It all started in 2010. “Back then they were mixed art exhibitions, in which each of us did according to our own artistic abilities. Little by little we arrived at musicals. The first was ‘Mamma mia’ in 2017, then ‘Sister Act’, which should have been staged on 28 February 2020, but we were postponed by covid to 2022. Besta on stage was born from the fusion of our actors with the Ida choir Milanese. Many members of the choir are also actors and dancers, while the actual dance troupe is made up of girls who have been dancing together for many years and have participated in various competitions in the past. One of my sons is in the cast and plays little Michael Banks. My head doctor, Antonio Silvani, an internationally renowned neuro-oncologist, will also be there.” Each show had a different focus, for different departments. The next one will be destined for a Besta detachment in Africa. They are stories that catapult upon us all the pain of their dramatic beauty. They are stories that give us a horizon of powerful meaning: doctor and patient can be traveling companions. Destination life.
To purchase tickets:
https://www.ticketone.it/event/tutto-e-possibile-persino-limpossibile-teatro-lirico-giorgio-gaber-18101220/