from 5 to 17 May at the Teatro Manzoni in Milan the cynical America of Pulitzer Prize winner David Mamet will be told
Rarely in the theater do we witness such a profound bond of admiration between author and actor as the one between Luca Barbareschi and David Mametof which Barbareschi himself edited the translations. One of these, intellectually similar to the Milanese actor, is “November” on stage from 5 to 17 May at the Teatro Manzoni in Milan. With him, who plays the protagonist role, Simone Colombari, Nico Di Crescenzo, Brian Boccuni and above all Chiara Noschese, who is also the director.
November is a comedy written by David Memetwinner of a Pulitzer Prize, as well as nominated for two Oscars, where with his cynical and sharp humor he recounts the attempts of the outgoing president Charles Smith – whose chances of re-election are now embarrassingly declining – not to abandon the White House.
With a tenacious desire to be re-elected, he is ready to use any means to avoid leaving the Oval Office, sacrificing, or rather in this case NOT sacrificing, turkeys, intrepid moves and unexpected public events. As the US weekly reviews it Variety: “this is satire with the sting of a scorpion.”
The play was written in 2007, although in reality it seems to have been made the day before yesterday. Mamet has the ability to look into the future and predicted what would happen, what is happening now. “Twenty years ago, when he sent me this text – explains Luca Barbareschi – he was talking about the war in Iraq, today we are fighting in Iran, but always for oil. For me Mamet he’s like Mozart, a genius: he’s not just a writer, he’s an anthropologist and an economist, he has an extraordinary mind. He is a person who enters the human soul. With an upbeat comedy. Making Mamet in Italy is a bit of a gamble, the gamble of teaching a language while bringing a contemporary theme.”
Why the choice of Chiara Noschese, first as an actress and then as director of the entire comedy? “First of all – continues Barbareschi – she is an extraordinary actress, and for me only those who know how to act very well can be good directors. I have worked with three great directors in my life: one is the often forgotten Virginio Puecher, who is a craftsman of entertainment like Chiara, the second is the brilliant Roman Polański; the third, to whom I attribute the same intelligence and ability as the latter, is Chiara Noschese.”
Chiara Noschese who declares herself to have always been in love with David Mamet’s work. “The depth of his characters is in the jokes themselves, and every joke is a well-aimed blow. November is like a circus where anything goes in order to continue to have power and money. This is how I imagined it and this is how I tried to restore it, relying on the text and protecting its meaning and narrative impact.”
One politically incorrect joke after another, with a histrionic Luca Barbareschi who defines himself as “an entertainment labourer”.
All seasoned with comedy that makes you laugh and reflect at the same time, a show that doesn’t want to be moral. He wants to provoke in an intelligent way, leaving the final answer to remain in the viewer’s heart.
