(Show in Italian with subtitles)
I’ve always wanted to perform “Oedipus Rex.” I’m a passionate devotee of psychoanalysis and mystery literature. I’ve always been fascinated by this extraordinary plot, in which the person investigating a murder turns out to be the murderer himself. For some time now, I’ve been advocating the idea of reducing the role of the director—who, in my humble opinion, should move away from being an author and return to being an interpreter. However, while it’s right to return to the text, it’s also true that there is no authentic interpretive tradition of Greek tragedy. As far as we know, the texts that have come down to us are vaguely comparable to opera libretti without music. When conducting an ancient drama, one starts from year zero.
The vastness of this masterpiece of humanity necessarily entails some betrayals. In the aftermath of a pandemic, one could move from the social theme of the plague to the Girardian theme of the scapegoat. I have chosen the path of the metaphor of knowledge. Oedipus’s stubborn will to discover the truth makes him seem like a kind of Ulysses who cannot help but travel to continue learning. However, Oedipus’s journey is an implosive one: he investigates by exploring within himself.
Therefore, the actor himself, Luca Lazzareschi, will play not only the protagonist, but also those who know the truth, or at least part of it. Luca will also play Tiresias and the messenger, conversing with the distorted images of himself reproduced on video by Alessandro Papa, who has been collaborating with me for years. The main iconography chosen for this staging is surrealism: an almost obligatory choice for a psychoanalytically oriented inner journey. For the music, I decided to follow another of my passions related to this text: detective stories, especially from the suspense films of the last century. Taking advantage of the Western and Eastern origins of my now frequent musician, the Israeli Ran Bagno, I cannot forget that Oedipus also represents the most incandescent point of one of humanity’s eternal conflicts: the struggle between two cultures.
I could never have imagined bringing this lifelong dream to life without the great acting talent of Luca Lazzareschi and Manuela Mandracchia, who will play Jocasta; without the visionary abilities of Marta Crisolini Malatesta; without the cinematic lighting talent of Gigi Saccomandi; and without the collaboration of actors who have become my traveling companions, starting with Paolo Serra, with whom I have collaborated for almost thirty years, and continuing with Francesco Biscione, Paolo Cresta, and Alessandro Balletta.
Luca de Fusco, director.
Recommended age: from 16 years.
Duration: to be determined.
