NUNZIO
by > spiro scimone
with > francesco sframeli > spiro scimone
direction> carlo cecchi
set designer and costumist > sergio tramonti
light designer > domenico maggiotti
assistant director > valerio binasco
photo credits > andrea coclite
assistant set and costumes > chiara lambiase
technical director > santo pinizzotto
administration > giovanni scimone
production > compagnia scimone sframeli
Idi 1994 ” authors new award “
Gold medal idi 1995 ” for the playwriting “
Two states of solitude living side by side, two men on the margins of life. They find themselves shut in a kitchen, seated at a table, which dominates the centre of the single room which serves as home, refuge, den in which to hide: from themselves and from the world. Both are incapable of choosing their own destiny, one always out and about on mysterious missions, perhaps as hired assassin, forced to follow the orders of an invisible boss, the other trusting in his pills and prayers, in the total abnegation of the illness that is killing him.
<Nunzio, the play by Spiro Scimone, was primarily of interest to me because it was written, in Sicilian, by a young actor who would be interpreting the piece with another young actor with whom he had worked for many years. This work is born from within a theatrical experience which two young actors had been sharing for years. I found that to be of particular interest, because possibly that made it something that had a real necessity.
The work I have been doing with Spiro Scimone and Francesco Sframeli, together with Valerio Binasco, who has been assisting me in direction, has served to confirm that this is something very real and concrete: theatre is absolutely fundamental to them
There is a conflict within the theatre of Nunzio between an 18th century realism, updated according to tv-cinema clichés, and the intermittent feeling of its’ impossibility, that’s to say between the pretence of “what if” of the realism-naturalism style, and the awareness, albeit fleeting, of its’ by total isolation. This conflict, which emerges in places throughout the work, seemed the most interesting element to take on and study in more detail. And as this touches the most problematic issues in acting, namely the relationship between identification and its opposite, it requires tremendous direction of the actors during rehearsals.
This play is being presented in the context of the Festival of Taormina, which this year is celebrating Eduardo De Filippo. Eduardo was very involved in the last years of his life with the new generation of Italian dramaturgy. I dedicate this work to his memory, and to the supreme lesson we all learnt from his theatre.>
Carlo Cecchi
The piece won the 1994 New Authors IDI prize and 1995 IDI Gold Medal for the best drama.
From the text Nunzio has been produced the film Due Amici (Two Friends), directed and starred by Spiro Scimone and Francesco Sframeli, winner of the Golden Lion for Best First Film at Venice International Film Festival 2002 and nominated for Best Debut Award 2002 David di Donatello, Silver ribbon, European film awards (European Oscar)