La Prima la Migliore
(The first one, the best one)
La Prima la Migliore
(The first one, the best one)
The Play
from the novel by Erich Maria Remarque
Written and directed by Gianfranco Berardi and Gabriella Casolari
With Gianfranco Berardi, Gabriella Casolari and Davide Berardi
Emilia Romagna Theater Foundation production
In 2015, on the occasion of the centenary of the First World War which devastated Italy, the Compagnia Berardi Casolari debuted with a play called La prima, la migliore. The choice was to take up and rework the confession novel "All Quiet on the Western Front", in which the author, Erich Maria Remarque, tells in a lucid and ferocious way the story of peoples thrown against each other, out of hatred and for pride. At the same time the play makes the audience think about the situation of depression and despair that envelops society without respite, yesterday as today. The condition of a generation "lost" to a criminal ideology, propagated without hesitation, the distance between the people and those who govern them, the epochal change and the consequent existential bewilderment, are the metaphors to tell our condition of our time in our country.
The theater of Berardi and Casolari is made few elements, with a minimalist approach which favors the emotional montage by opposites, the splinter that sticks in the heart, the liberating sarcasm, the synthesis of the image and a dramaturgy of contamination where we seem to recognize also Gadda. More intuitive than analytical, more immediate than sophisticated, rougher than smooth. There is the magnetic presence of Berardi, who transformed blindness into increased theatrical sensitivity, but above all there is the spark of an empathy that is never overdone.
The authors have told us tonight that the human beast, like a sleepwalker, is digging the abyss over which he dances cheerfully. Maybe a butterfly will save us. This theatre, in its stubbornness in speaking to a monster that can only grind its teeth and chew bones, has the beauty of a butterfly, always ready to call us out of tombs and trenches to touch that fragility that nonetheless moves us. Its name is "hope", which the audience - despite everything - took away at the end of the thunderous applause.
Simple and powerful images [...] Another demonstration of Berardi and Casolari's ability (to which Davide Berardi's versatility as musician-actor is added) to build compact narratives, to skilfully alternate the registers of acting (from the ironic to the tragic, from comical to melancholic), to develop functional directions, to make the best use of the language of the scene.
A theater of denunciation, therefore, created by a company that demonstrates excellent craftsmanship and acting skills. And if particular praise goes to Gianfranco Berardi, who has made his blindness a strength (and it is hard to believe he is blind), it is from the perfect harmony of the group that the quality of their theater is born.
Gallery
Video
Reviews
- Visioni – mar 2017 (Katia Ippaso)
- Culture Teatrali – feb 2017 (Laura Budriesi)
- ilpickwick.it – 13 feb 2017 (Antonio Cataldo)
- ildialogodimonza.it – 5 feb 2017
- radar – 2 feb 2017 (Francesca De Sanctis)
- teatro.persinsala.it – 2 feb 2017 (Vincenzo Carboni)
- contrappunti.info – 26 gen 2017 (Maria Francesca Stancapiano)
- la Repubblica – 25 gen 2017
- lineadiretta24.it – 25 gen 2017 (Letizia Del Pizzo)
- il Tempo – 24 gen 2017 (T. de Matteis)
- corrierespettacolo.it – 29 mar 2016 (Lorena Vallieri)
- Gazzetta di Modena – 7 dic 2015 (Andrea Marcheselli)
- Il Resto del Carlino Modena/Teatro in classe – 3 dic 2015 (I ragazzi del Liceo Sigonio di Modena)
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