On stage at the Ambra Jovinelli in Rome, with Valeria Solarino, Paolo Calabresi, Dino Abbrescia, Anna Ferzetti, Marco Bonini, Alice Bertini, Massimo De Lorenzo and the director’s theatrical debut
The perfect mechanism of ‘Perfect strangers’ That Paul Genoese had created for the cinema, it remains ‘perfect’ also for the theatre, in the scenic transposition always signed by the director, which now sees until 23 April at theAmbra Jovinelli of Rome compete in the roles of the seven protagonists Valeria Solarino e Paolo Calabresi, Dino Abbrescia e Anna Ferzetti and Marco Bonini e Alice Bertini, Massimo DeLorenzo and… their respective cell phones, authentic leading actors with their text messages sometimes accompanied by equally compromising images.
The theatrical adaptation of the film – which since its release in 2016 has immediately become a ‘cult’, starring Marco Giallini e Kasia Smutniak, Valerio Mastandrea e Anna Foglietta and Edoardo Leo e Alba Rohrwacher, Giuseppe Battiston e Blessed Porcaroli – definitely marks one of the most awaited scenic events of the season, with Paolo Genovese making his debut as a theater director.
Couple relationship and coming out, love and betrayal, friendship and falsehood, blatant lies and hidden truths, form the backdrop to the story, which arises from an ‘innocent’ game but which will reveal many culpability, with a surprise ending: keep the cell phones of the seven guests at the dinner at home open on the table without codes and answer any calls on the speakerphone and text messages received and sent in plain sight. The landlady’s ‘brilliant idea’ will lead four pairs of friends to confront each other and discover that, in each of their private and public lives, they are ‘perfect strangers’ as the title of the play states.
(Of Enzo Bonaiuto)