What if we went back to talking about love? It is the provocative theme of the 2024-25 season of the Franco Parenti Theatre, the Milanese building which recently celebrated fifty years of existence which will be celebrated again with an exhibition, from 5 November, in an atrium of the theater garden with a work by the artist Giulio Paolini.
Very rich programme, projects completed and others to be started, synergy with the institutions and sponsors, who, as noted by the Councilor for Culture of the Municipality of Milan Tommaso Sacchi, «the role of the private sector is not just that of sponsorship but of co-planning. And this is a significant signal.” «Going back to talking about love means being able to listen, to get excited, to “give up”», he explains Andrée Ruth Shammah in the presentation press conference which took place on Thursday morning, «loving simplicity without the fear of complex reasoning. And love the contradictions, the imperfections and the capacity for compassion and joy.”
His appeal is to «let yourself be guided by the curiosity of a billboard that wants to have as its common thread the desire for a loving relationship with our audience. Which is then love for being together… for poetry, literature, culture.” And some advice: «Exchange your impressions with us and write to us». The old and new seasons are increasingly intertwined with each other compared to the past, with shows divided into multi-year projects.
The latest directorial by Shammah herself, Who like meby the Israeli director Roy Chen and which tells the story of the growth of five young people being treated at a mental health center in Tel Aviv, returns again this year from 1 October to 1 December (Room A2A) with the support of the Guido Venosta Foundation, chaired by Giuseppe Caprotti, within the scope of “HAPPY becoming capable”, a prevention and support intervention project for the psychological well-being of adolescents carried out together with Il Minotauro of Milan, Le Comunità della Salute of Monza and the CSV (Volunteering Service Centers) of Milan and Monza, Lecco and Sondrio.
«Press conferences for the presentation of the theater season are the most boring thing that can exist and that’s why I mix everything up: partners, institutions, directors, actors», says Shammah with his usual histrionic attitude.
On stage, between new productions (12, in total) and come back, there is Silvio Orlando which arrives on October 8th with Charlatans, opening title of the season, written and directed by Spanish playwright Pablo Remon.
From 9 to 13 October space for Factum est Of Giovanni Testoriplayed by Andrea Soffiantini. It is one of the most intense monologues of Testo’s theatre, focusing on the dramatic question of meaning that accompanies man since his condition as a fetus.
Gioele Dix returns with Thursday, a journey of seven shows, from 10 October to 10 April, in which the comedian reads and comments on seven works by modern and contemporary authors, from Alice Munro to Oriana Fallaci, from Dorothy Parker to Almudena Grandes.
From 22nd to 27th October Gordi Theatre, Parenti’s resident company, brings to the scene Pandora, a play set in a public toilet at the end of a corridor or under a city square: it could be the toilet of an airport, a club or a petrol station. A varied and transitory humanity passes through it, it is a den of demons, an antechamber, a threshold before a farewell or a baptism of fire.
It is always Gordi’s Side notesscheduled for November 7-15 and making its national debut. A wake is staged, with an open coffin, some vestments and some visitors. The show is an attempt to give meaning to pain and loss, through gestures and words that become a tribute to the deceased.
The misanthrope by Molière, produced and directed by Shammah and Luca Micheletti, is a tribute to the modernity of the French playwright, and will be on stage from 19 to 24 November. As desired by the two directors, the work avoids moral judgments, preferring to explore the various points of view of the characters in their kaleidoscopic complexity.
The director Filippo Timi proposes a new edition of Amleto², his famous show, which returns to Parenti after 15 years. In this innovative rereading, hosted by the Parenti Theater from 10 to 22 December and then from 27 to 31 of the same month, the Shakespearean classic is radically reworked, converting passions and characters into a circus atmosphere.
From Joseph Roth’s masterpiece The legend of the holy drinker, Shammah was inspired by a theater play of the same name, scheduled for January 16-26. It is the story of a man, of an existence lost behind the opportunities of life, but aimed until death towards the fulfillment of a moral duty.
Scenes from a wedding by Ingmar Bergman, from 21 to 26 January, tells of a couple who try to stay together despite suffering cracks and dissatisfaction, anger, tensions and resentments accumulated over the years. The direction is by Raphael Tobia Vogel, together with Fausto Cabra and Sara Lazzaro.
Come back Massimo Daiuto in the show Pirandello pulp by Edoardo Erba, with Fabio Troiano and directed by Dix (from 4 to 16 March), it seems like a game of role reversal, but the discovery of disturbing truths will shake the precarious balance of the characters and cause the comedy to rush towards an unexpected ending. We are in rehearsal, on the stage where “Il gioo delle parti” by the famous Sicilian playwright is to be performed.
From March 18th to April 11th, directed by Fausto Cabra, S arrivesfragments of disordered memory in polychrome ink”, a play that draws inspiration from the biographical events of Billy Milligan, an American criminal famous for being the first to be acquitted of violent crimes due to multiple personality disorder.