Time.news – A long applause, the enthusiasm of the audience, a full house, autographs and selfies on the street, on 42nd Street, among curious tourists, a stone’s throw from Times Square. Barbara Saba’s Broadway debut was the latest episode in an artistic dream that is coming true.
After twenty years in Italy, between theater and tango, Saba, Roman, daughter of a tobacconist in Forte Bravetta, moved in 2016 completely changing her life, to start again from Hollywood. After participating in an acting course at the American Academy to refine her English, the Roman actress was among the best in the course, and was compared by the art direction to the “new Anna Magnani”.
It was there that they told her that perhaps she should try the American adventure. And indeed in the monologue staged Wednesday night at Theater Row, for the United Solo Theater Festival, we saw all the artistic qualities of an actress capable of quickly passing from the dramatic register to the comic, from the melancholy to the dreamy, from singing to hinting at tango steps and giving body to several voices.
Seeing her recite sometimes arouses awe. Off Broadway is the largest festival in the world dedicated to monologue artists, from here giants such as Robin Williams, Hugh Jackman and Patti LuPone have passed, the actors play a few meters from a very selective audience, which does not forgive uncertainties .
America does not discount anyone, but recognizes talent and supports it. With ‘Lies, Anger and Forgiveness’, written and performed by Saba, directed by DeBra DeLiso, music and arrangements by Sam Meek, the actress kept the audience glued to the scene, between laughter and emotion, along the thread of memories of an “Italian immigrant” who wants to quit smoking and finds herself catapulted into a journey of self-analysis, an emotional vortex from which angels and demons emerge.
Forty-five minutes of high artistic intensity, thanks also to the artist’s perfect English diction, alternating with passages in true Romanesque from neorealism. A few weeks ago Saba, who lives in Los Angeles, took part in the filming of an action film with Mark Strong and Kerry Washington: playing for a small part, the Roman actress conquered production and director, and gained a more important role .
But the theater remains his daily bread. Saba will carry around the United States the monologue presented on Off Broadway, which has already won awards in California and that of the critics at the Orlando Fringe Festival. If the American Dream still exists, Saba seems fully inside hers.