CARLENTINI – On the evening of 18 December 2021, the Municipal Theater of Carlentini “Turi Ferro” with the artistic direction of Alfio Breci, presents Luigi Pirandello’s “One, None and One Hundred Thousand”, directed by the impeccable direction of Antonello Capodici. The protagonist of the work in question was masterfully interpreted by the actor Pippo Pattavina and the figure of his wife, by the good Marianella Bargilli. The play of the scenographies and the lights, magnificently realized, accompanied the interpretation of the actors and the message of the work, in an eloquent way and perfectly in line with the dreamlike dimensions of the subject and its moments of reality. From “Girgenti”, in Sicily, a genius of Italian literature was born, master of writing and teacher of life through his works, one of which bears the title of “One, Nobody and One Hundred Thousand”. Any reader or spectator who had the first approach to the title of this work, paused to reflect on the hidden meaning, catapulting into the whirlwind of reflection, reasoning and the semantics of words. Exactly this happens on the stage, with the majestic interpretation of the great Pippo Pattavina who opens the curtain at the epilogue of the existence of “Gengè” wearing a sad white shirt, hunched shoulders and a bewildered look. There, under accusation, wearing the robes of the fool, manifesting a sense of alienation and extraneousness with respect to his neighbor, with respect to his essence, assuming a conflictual relationship with himself and with others, he becomes the victim of a painful stupidity that contaminates the human race . There, under accusation, wearing the robes of the fool, manifesting a sense of alienation and extraneousness with respect to his neighbor, with respect to his essence, assuming a conflictual relationship with himself and with others, he becomes the victim of a painful stupidity that contaminates the human race. Luigi Pirandello, who fully lives the literary paths of the twentieth century, uses every influence coming from Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis, when the ego and the superego collide within a dream dimension that clashes with reality. Luigi Pirandello will make use of James Joyce’s “Stream of Consciousness”, in the moment in which the character dives between the past and the present, through flashbacks, superimpositions of memories, being carried away by the flow of his consciousness and his emotional intelligence crushed by the reality he is experiencing. Through the psychological introspection that the protagonist makes of himself, the semantics of the title of this extraordinary work are revealed, the character himself comes to an awareness, to the discovery of the truth … a revelation, what James Joyce calls “Epiphany”. “Epiphany” as it is understood in the religious meaning of the term, when the “Savior” was a revelation for the Magi and the whole of humanity. Here the protagonist becomes a teacher of life and leaves an existential lesson to the viewer, the reader, to the “human being” he is interpreting on the stage. Vitangelo is each of us, every individual who at some point in life realizes that he is what he does not want to be, that inside himself is different from what others want him to be. He realizes that in reality he is living a life that is not his one, he is inside a social role that he does not want. His own name has been taken from him, for the others he is “Gengè”. Here … Vitangelo tells us about the social malaise in which the human being experiences his malaise, being born with a surname that he cannot choose, also inheriting the burden of the past. And so Vitangelo, recalling Shakespeare’s Romeo, argues on the meaning of the name and the reputation that it inherits, with its shadows and its reputations. Only in the end will he get rid of it, stripping off the clothes that he does not feel his own, will he be reborn. “Epiphany” as it is understood in the religious meaning of the term, when the “Savior” was a revelation for the Magi and the whole of humanity. Here … the protagonist becomes a teacher of life and leaves an existential lesson to the viewer, the reader, to the “human being” he is interpreting on the stage. Vitangelo is each of us, every individual who at some point in life realizes that he is what he does not want to be, that inside himself is different from what others want him to be. He realizes that in reality he is living a life that is not his one, he is inside a social role that he does not want. His own name has been taken from him, for the others he is “Gengè”.
Here … Vitangelo tells us about the social malaise in which the human being experiences his malaise, being born with a surname that he cannot choose, also inheriting the burden of the past.
And so Vitangelo, recalling Shakespeare’s Romeo, argues on the meaning of the name and the reputation that it inherits, with its shadows and its reputations. Only in the end will he get rid of it, stripping off the clothes that he does not feel his own, will he be reborn. He is reborn freeing himself from the situations that made him feel bad, living them with an emotional shield that would have protected him. From suffering he is reborn discovering the beauty in the simple but important things that he had at hand, but did not see them. He is reborn at the sight of a cloud, at the sight of a plant, at hearing the song of a bird … that is, he is reborn in the beauty of Nature, and he succeeds because man is all “One” with Nature, he is his home, comes from there … man is Nature. Our master Luigi Pirandello, with this masterpiece has “revealed” the way to be reborn: Man can do it by being reborn in Nature and in Love for himself.
