|  |  :: ITALIAN STYLE :: THEATRE :: |
  The ten commandments at the theatre
Mario Martone's "Ten commandments " is a show taken from a text of the Neapolitan dramaturge Raffaele Viviani written between 1937 and '47. Viviani's original text is a historical witnessing of the Neapolitan postwar and a poetical and tragic representation of a suffering humanity.
Mario Martone was the first to measure himself against this modern review in verses, prose and music. The show's structure is made up of ten different frames referring to the ten divine precepts and in each scene an episode is told in contrast with the commandment pronounced by an off-scene voice. Sixteen actors interpret more than a hundred characters, exchanging parts from one scene to the other with live music accompaniment of the orchestra playing Viviani composed pieces and arranged by Daniele Sepe.
Each frame of the "Ten Commandments" takes place around an enormous rotating structure which on one side represents a stairway, typical of Naples' alleys, and on the other a house or patio, according to the requirements.In this atmosphere of the misery and desperation of the human being who does what he can to survive, recalling the themes and style a little cartoon like so beloved by Eduardo de Filippo but also by Totò, the stories of the protagonists follow one another. And so we see Meneca the miracled during a procession ("I am the Lord your God "), Joseph the carpenter who complains and swears for his misfortune ("You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain "), John who returns from the war and finds his wife with another ("You shall not kill"), two thieves who take pity on the robbed ("You shall not steal"), and so on until the tenth commandment. Martone didn't cut any scenes from the original version, but he added some things reintegrating some passages which were considered scandalous at the time and for which Raffaele Viviani censored himself. One of these was the episode "You shall not commit adultery" which takes place in women's prison in Poggioreale.
"The Ten Commandments" is an alive show to which the director has given substance and mobility without ever falling into a stereotyped reading of Naples. B.S. From the 12th to the 16th December
Udine, Teatro Nuovo Giovanni da Udine
December.2001
Mario Martone (a review "in rome")
Martone and "l'amore molesto"
Mario Martone (In Italian)
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