Mussolini is ‘back’ – paraphrasing the title, ‘I’m back’, of the film directed by Luca Miniero – and returns to have the body and voice of Massimo Popolizio, flanked by Tommaso Ragnothis time at the theater – allArgentina of Rome from 4 March to 3 April, after the debut at the Piccolo in Milan – with the show signed by the actor and director, based on the historical novel ‘M The son of the century’ written by Antonio Scurati. The six years from 1919 to 1925 pass under the spotlight, i.e. from the birth of fascist nationalism after the Great War to the march on Rome and the definitive transformation of fascism into a dictatorial regime. rise and consecration of the Duceup to the famous speech by Benito Mussolini in front of Parliament in which, also with reference to the Matteotti crime, he claims that “if fascism was a criminal association, I am the leader”.
On stage, they take turns well eighteen actors to tell with eighty characters – historical and theatrical protagonists are Benito Mussolini like his supporting actors, who speak ‘sneaky’ in the first person in the third person, from Marinetti to D’Annunzio, from Margherita Sarfatti to Italo Balbo, from Pietro Nenni and Giacomo Matteotti – the ascending parable of the Duce and of the squadism that becomes politics, for a co-production of the Theater of Rome with the Piccolo Teatro of Milan and with the Istituto Luce Cinecittà, for an adaptation of the novel by Scurati in about thirty ‘theatrical pictures’ and with a circular structure that opens and closes with the last bar of the book
“The text of the show aims to bring to the stage a plastic and expressionist representation of the affirmation of fascism – Massimo Popolizio explains in the director’s notes – A story, the one that leads Italy to fascism, which is never known enough, in particular that of the six years following the Great War, with the enterprise of Fiume, the tilting of the Country towards the socialist revolution, the reaction and the spread of squads, the daring March on Rome whose centenary is celebrated this year and the inexorable effectiveness of a political doctrine that escapes the categories of judgment with theviolent action“.
(Of Enzo Bonaiuto)