«Sognare, forse… morire»

Abstract

In May 2007, the theatre company Tiezzi-Lombardi enacted d’Annunzio’s Sogno di un mattino di primavera, originally written for Eleonora Duse in 1897. Though respectful of his language, the company created a new dream-like version. The stage design by Fabrizia Scasellati Sforzolini and the particular setting in the court of the Bargello Museum in Florence make for an essential geometric stage writing, in which the actors play with exact anti-naturalistic voice and physical action, countered by Sandro Lombardi’s frail transfiguration into the main female role of the Demente. In his interpretation, built over a detailed phonetic study and on both estrangement and embodiment actor’s techniques, lays the secret of the re-creation of d’Annunzio’s work. At the same time, the overall interpretation conveys the impossibility of reason to grasp the mystery of life, already inscribed in the text, while showing the means towards a contemporary sense of the tragic.

Keywords

• Acting techniques. Death. Madness. Phoné. Sleep. Stage. Symbolism. Writing