A beautiful voice: on the telephone Alice Mangione has an even more colorful and intense timbre; perhaps because she is the daughter of radio speakers, raised on bread and butter, perhaps because the imminent debut of her show has given her new energy. A new show that coincides with a new phase in his life.
Alice Mangione @alycemangioneactress, comedian, author, co-author and star of The Pozzolis Familya project born in 2016, when together with ex-partner Gianmarco Pozzoli they gave life, first in Italy when social media was not yet so advanced, to the story of their family life with irony and authenticity.
Ex-partner, precisely, because For almost two years the Pozzolis have no longer been together but, demonstrating a more than healthy intelligence, they continue to create funny videos which portray, with intelligent humour, the dynamics of a separated couple.
“Cruda e Nuda was born after the separation?
“In reality, “Raw and Naked” began before and then at the time of the separation. It was a friend who spoke to me. During the writing of the show, some things that I wasn’t yet aware of had come out and come to light in the writing. In a certain sense, therefore, the show was cathartic: that’s why I love it so much. It’s a show where I exploit what is one of my main pillars, the truth, only that as I continued to write about this truth, I realized that I was the first I was avoiding it. The same truth, however, accompanied us in the choice to separate. So I owe a lot to this show.”
You and Gianmarco are two extremely intelligent people, in addition to maintaining a good relationship, you also manage to joke and create witty videos about your new situation
“We took our time. We chose to communicate it well after we had done it, because we needed that experience to remain clearly private. We handled it together with our children in an intimate way. Once metabolized, we shared the news. Two people who have become parents of the same children, will always be parents of those children, and precisely for their well-being you need to have the strength to focus on the fact that the person with whom you are separating is the other parent and not your ex, putting aside what could be possible accusations or grudges.”
Alice, you are about to debut with “Raw and Naked – Side B”, an extension of your previous monologue. What’s new?
“When the time came to think about this new tour, I didn’t want to completely change the show, which I really love as if it were a great friend, but I also wanted and needed to tell something more, so I thought about the “B side”. Do you know the one of the records? The one that contains the pieces that don’t become hits, but which sometimes contain gems, they are often those tracks that few discover, but amateurs appreciate more. I liked this assonance, giving pieces that were more personal. I also decided to remove parts that were simply a little too heavy. I no longer want heaviness, I instead want to talk about everyday dramas but with a light meaning, to laugh at them heartily and with gusto.”
How does the show develop?
“I bring tarot cards as stage companions. I started to be interested in this world a bit for fun, until I became madly passionate about it! I use tarot cards because I enjoy the idea of doing a reading, obviously fake, of life. I will ask for the help of anyone in the audience who wants to lend themselves to this reading in a witty way. Each card is linked to a theme, and they represent the pretext for the development of the show, which will not be a pure stand up: I enjoy mixing multiple genres and give the public something more than just speaking with a microphone in hand.”
A show, a lightness that accompanies a new Alice, or rather, an Alice who had been relegated to a marginal role
“I’m doing a great job because I have to reposition my person, my art, moving away from old topics, because, despite having loved them, the time has come to abandon themes of motherhood and family. I’m making space for a forty-year-old, separated, female artist with two children who wants to tell a new reality. A reality that she didn’t think she would have to tell, but that’s how it is.”
What are these new themes?
“When you leave the childhood of children, your gaze reopens on the world and you feel the desire to move forward in your personal research, in discovering the things that fascinate you. A characteristic that I carried with me for many years was “funnyness”: I used it to go through tiring moments of difficulty. I have never been a size forty and I have spent years being self-deprecating about my body. That’s enough. My body is my body, which you may like or not, but no longer something I want to laugh about with the others.”
A witty, but not funny, Alice
“My humour, the themes with which I want to pursue my comedy are more caustic. Maybe I’m not even self-deprecating anymore. I already have been. Now I continue to use irony on life.”
You’re taking your space, enjoying your autonomy and debuting soon…
“Exactly, I’ll debut next week, I’m really curious, I’m like a tiger that has been kept in the cage covered by a cloth, I’ll explode in a while. The preview is at Cava Manara, near Pavia, a small theater by Sergio Sgrilli, and there I build the set-up: one of the most beautiful, creative and fun parts of the show. Then I leave for Sicily and from there the whole peninsula, including Florence, San Benedetto del Tronto, Modena and Milan at the Teatro Manzoni on March 2nd.”
A new awareness, a humor no longer oriented towards self-irony only to cover uncertainties that have finally been overcome, but a comedy that flows into respect for being a woman.
“Raw and Naked”. Hilarious, ironic, but not funny. Never again.
