Shadows, ambiguities, lies and deceptions behind the masks of the Commedia dell'Arte, in Latella's show "The servant of two masters"
Antonio Latella with The servant of two masters takes a double challenge. On one hand it confronts and clashes with the original text of Carlo Goldoni, emblem of the Commedia dell'Arte, on the other hand with the famous and immemorial stage representation by Giorgio Strehler, of which the mask of Harlequin has now entered the collective imagination of all.
But in the pièce of Latella, Harlequin he is not the protagonist, nor is he Harlequin, as we all know him. His background ambiguity comes from his first entry on the scene. He is "Harlequin", as he will often repeat, and does not wear a mask or a well-defined identity.
The story takes place inside a Venetian hotel, of which Brighella it is the manager, just as happens in the Goldonian text. Here we should celebrate the promise of marriage between Clarice, daughter of Pantalone, and Silvio, son of Doctor Lombardi, since Federico Rasponi, Clarice's betrothed, died in a quarrel. But what dominates the scene is not so much the plot or the plot, but the lies, the falsehoods, the deceptions, the complicity and the suffering.
Harlequin, who should be the main character of the comedy and the engine of the scenic action, funny and carefree, here is cruel, dark and a reflection of the wickedness of others. The more his suit is white, the more his soul is black. He is an empty character with no identity, who in order to survive is forced to lie and deceive without even knowing why, as if he must necessarily obey a plot that someone else has written for him. To the point of not being able to perform even the "fly lasso", one of the best known of the typical Harlequin mask, which he is forced to learn on stage with the help of the "masters" and to repeat it several times to memorize it.
They do not exist, in the version of Latella, colorful patches, funny curtains and hilarious jokes. Harlequin and the other masks jump, do somersaults and jokes, but behind all this there is no lightheartedness but deception and scandal, almost as if the director, and the young playwright Ken Ponzio, they wanted to free the Commedia dell'Arte of all external and superfluous ornaments and get to the bone, addressing a contemporary theme. That of the merchandising of feelingsand lie to reach one's goals and interests, as happens in our contemporary world, where not even love can save itself.
Latella here also plays with ambiguity and sexual incest. Also here Beatrice he disguises himself as Federico Rasponi to win Clarice's dowry, but, at the same time, Rasponi is evoked by the figure of Arlecchino, who becomes, at the same time, Beatrice's brother and dead lover. And theirs seems like the only "relationship" in which love is truly sincere.
Although the premises and objectives de The servant of two masters by Latella are more than fascinating, in the piece there is something that does not return and that does not convince. Some moments turn out to be redundant and empty, some obsessive gestures, some jokes too rapid and incomprehensible, and the relationship with the original text risks getting lost, making some bored spectators leave the room before the end of the show.
In short, theHarlequin in which we witness for two and a quarter hours (without interval) it is one revolutionary mask, to which Latella returns and then starts again, in a rewriting that takes up the tradition to launch into the future. The emblem of this revolutionary "momentum" is the physical and material destruction of the theater scene performed by all the characters at the end of the play. Metaphor of a theater which, in order to regain its vitality in the contemporary era, must visit tradition, tear it apart and grasp its essentials, to be reworked and then offered to the spectator through new and more effective languages. Whether the audience likes it or not.
The show is on stage at Teatro Bellini of Naples until the February 23. To find out about ticket prices and timetables see our card.
