SEI
By > Spiro Scimone
(adaptation of Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello)
with > Francesco Sframeli, Spiro Scimone, Gianluca Cesale, Giulia Weber, Bruno Ricci, Francesco Natoli, Mariasilvia Greco, Michelangelo Maria Zanghì, Miriam Russo, Zoe Pernici
direction > Francesco Sframeli
scenery > Lino Fiorito
costumes > Sandra Cardini
lighting > Beatrice Ficalbi
music > Roberto Pelosi
assistant to director > Roberto Bonaventura
photography > Gianni Fiorito
stage manager > Santo Pinizzotto
costume assistant > Carolina Tonini
administration > Giovanni Scimone
production > company Scimone Sframeli, Teatro Stabile di Torino – Teatro Nazionale, Teatro Biondo Stabile di Palermo, Théâtre Garonne-scène européenne Toulouse
in collaboration with > Fondazione Campania dei Festival – Napoli Teatro Festival Italia
The adaptation entitled “Sei”, based on the play “Six Characters in Search of an Author” by L. Pirandello, stems from the need to put together our theatrical language with the language of the great master.
During the elaboration of the piece, we reduced the number of characters, removed or added scenes and dialogues, replaced some linguistic terms, but without upsetting the dramaturgical structure of the original work.
We find ourselves in a theatre, a company formed by two actors, two actresses and the lead comic, rehearsals are about to start for a theatrical performance that, perhaps, will never make its’ debut.
Just before the start of the rehearsal, a sudden short circuit leaves the whole theatre in the dark. To get the lights switched on again, one of the actors goes in search of the technician, who had left the theatre just before the start of the rehearsal. But the technician is impossible to find and the light will only return with the appearance, in the flesh, of the Six Characters, rejected and abandoned by the author who created them. More specifically it is the Father, the Mother, the Stepdaughter, The Son, the Young Man and the Little Girl who will illuminate the theatre, with the hope of being able to bring their “painful drama”to life on stage.
The members of the company, shocked by this sudden appearance, think that the “Six” are just intruders or madmen and do everything to get them out of the theatre. But when the Father begins recounting the “painful drama” that continues to cause suffering, tensions and family conflicts; the attention and interest of the actors and the lead comic, towards the characters, grows more and more and the idea of making them live on the stage becomes an increasingly concrete necessary.
Living on stage is not just the desire of the characters; it is also the dream of the actors. Both know that their life on stage can only come about through the creation of a relationship, a perfect symbiosis between characters and actors. A relationship that is created time after time and minute after minute during performances.
The presence of the audience is indispensable to the performance.
And it is precisely the authenticity of this relationship between actor, character and audience, which is the true magic of theatre, and which makes us go beyond fiction and reality.
Spiro Scimone and Francesco Sframeli