Il Ventaglio - Teatro Piccolo Milano

 

Georgio Strehler was one of the most influential directors of Italian opera and theatre Trained to be a lawyer and thinking theatre was second rate next to cinema, Strehler wandered into a theatre one night to escape the heat and came out a changed man. In the course of his life he revolutionized the Italian theatre and in fact became the first “theatre director’ in Italy before that plays had been put on by companies and actor managers. What excited him was theatre that he found relevant to everyday life. He was influenced by his good friend Brecht and shared his politics. He specialized in Goldoni, Shakespeare, Chekhov, Brecht, and Pirandello giving their plays bold new modern productions. In 1947 he co-founded the Teatro Piccolo in Milan that has grown to encompass three theaters ; traveling productions of their works have astounded people around the world. Los Angeles theatre- goers have been fortunate to see several of his productions including Tempest at the Olympics in 1984 and Arlecchino in 2005.

I spent the spring in Milan and finally saw a Goldoni play, Il Ventaglio (The Fan), at the Strehler Theatre, the biggest of the three Piccolo spaces. I saw one of the last performances of what had been a hit of the 2006-2007 season. When the Piccolo performs Goldoni it is to be savored because of the remarkable execution of the material. Every gesture, noise, laugh, slap, movement is carefully choreographed. The result is like watching a fine ballet company perform a difficult ballet. Actors run backwards across the stage and sit down without looking. There are elaborate fight scenes involving four or five actors involving collapsing sets, broken chairs, and tossed bodies. The actors lean on a bench or slap  a table ,each move  carefully determined. While I was impressed by all this it also left me rather uninvolved because it the artificiality of the proceedings. Most telling was when someone broke a heal on the stage and not one actor changed his stride to pick it up, and there it remained for the entire act. Theatrical acting styles in Italy remain more craft and exaggeration than true art or improvisation. It is not by accident that opera is the predominate performing art; Opera’s exaggerated style and the influence of Commedia are still present on Italian stages. Some attempts of late have tried to introduce American Method to the Italian Theatre.

The actors in Il Ventaglio were very skilled at executing the moves and using the language. The director, Luca Ronconi, has really utilized the large stage and kept the action moving. He has even added some magic stagecraft, another influence of Strehler. The sets by Margherrita Palli were rather ingenious consisting mainly of tables and chairs placed on the stage to create many acting areas. The costumes by Gabriele Mayer were gorgeous to look at and well designed to allow for all the movement. I was entranced by what I saw but never became emotionally involved which both Strehler and Goldoni advocated.
At the Teatro Strehler through May 31 2008.