Details

The play focuses on a day in the life of a family marked by cruel games of retaliated disdain. The family has gathered to celebrate the couple's thirtieth wedding anniversary within the geometric confines of an abstract kitchen. Caged within the incommodious space of the familial microcosm each of the three characters plays his own part. This is the first work Scimone wrote in Italian; it is preceded by two previous works, Nunzio and Bar, written in the Messinese dialect. Though written in Italian the construction of the phrases and the cadence used by the performers is characteristic of the south of Italy. The dialogue, brief and made up of remarks containing few words, is musical, almost jazz like. It is delivered rhythmically, in a syncopation of phrases and words that denote the frequent repetition and variations of a constant theme. This drama is a confirmation of the originality of Spiro Scimone's work identifying him as one of the most authentic voices in contemporary Italian theatre. The words are deceiving, and they are used to deceive, mostly by the characters themselves who by constantly repeating the same phrases in a tormenting, obsessive manner succeed in convincing themselves that they are true. Scimone's introduction of a third character to La festa is a departure from Scimone's previous texts written for two characters, where despite the suggestion of an extra character, a third actor never appears upon the stage. For Scimone the added character in La festa is an instrument to further reinterpret the play's dialogue. The same word assumes a different value depending upon who speaks it.

Creatives/Company

Author: Spiro Scimone