La coscienza di Zeno

A masterpiece of twentieth-century literature, a forerunner novel of a powerfully European scope, ironic and fascinatingly complex, La coscienza di Zeno celebrates in 2023 the hundredth anniversary of its publication. The Teatro Stabile del Friuli Venezia Giulia brings it to the stage under the direction of Paolo Valerio in a new production – produced together with Goldenart Puroduction – as part of a rich research project dedicated to the important cultural deposits of Trieste and its territory. The monumental figure of Italo Svevo and his extraordinary psychoanalytical novel represent a moment of profound, universal significance. The Conscience of Zeno, on the other hand, also possesses a lively theatricality of its own, due to its experimentation with innovative writing and its being dominated by the compelling, complex and highly topical figure of Zeno Cosini. In fact, the novel springs from the notes of the protagonist who undergoes the treatment of the psychoanalyst Dr. S, trying, in that way, to resolve his sickness of living, his neurosis and inability to feel “in tune” with the world and with reality. His perceived ineptness and illness, and his stubborn – but never entirely convinced – attempts to change and heal, lead Zeno to traverse existence by surprisingly interweaving bourgeois everyday life with surreal episodes rich in humour and truth, and with illuminations that possess a force that still shakes us.
La coscienza di Zeno è has always been interpreted by great actors, such as Renzo Montagnani, Giulio Bosetti, Alberto Lionello, who was also the protagonist of the RAI screenplay, and, in the later television edition, Johnny Dorelli. In the new production by Paolo Valerio, Zeno will have the face of Alessandro Haber, an actor with an extremely powerful charisma and an absolutely personal stage instinct, who, outside any cliché, knows how to combine irony and depth in every interpretation.

Director's notes | Paolo Valerio
As Giorgio Strehler wrote, La coscienza di Zeno è «a stone in the heart of all Triestines» and for me è a truly special challenge.
I approached this work by strongly favouring Svevo's narration: I wanted to enclose in this theatrical experience some pages that I find extraordinary, unforgettable, building another Zeno next to the narrating Ego. So Zeno – played by Alessandro Haber – is told and relived through the body of another actor.
Zeno reveals to us the ’stumbling block, the ’humanity… And the character of Alessandro Haber also intertwines with this ineptitude and sometimes, during the performance, the ’man is superimposed on the ’actor, to emphasise “the ’originality” of life.
Zeno belongs to us, he tells of us, of our fragility, of our deceptive conscience, of the voice that speaks to us and that no one hears, and that suggests life to us.
Through the scrutinising eye of Dr S.
Through the scrutinising eye of Doctor S., I have tried to give back the surreal, ironic and sometimes lying dimension of Zeno, immersed in the atmosphere of his Trieste and of all the extraordinary characters that live there.
An imaginary world whose cerebral breath dialogues with the world of art, with psychoanalysis, and where I have tried to forcefully render the dialectic between “exterior and interior” in the ruthless analysis that Zeno makes of his own existence, constantly leaving a window open on his inner world.
Thanks to all the actors, collaborators and thanks to the passion of Alessandro Haber, our show would like to be just that, as Zeno Cosini says: «Life is neither beautiful nor ugly, but it is original. Life seemed as new to me as if I had seen it for the first time with its fluid and solid gaseous bodies. If we were to tell it to someone who was not used to it, he would be breathless at the enormous construction without purpose. He would ask: how did you stand it? And after inquiring about every single detail, from those celestial bodies hanging up there so that they can be seen but not touched, to the mystery surrounding death, he would certainly have exclaimed: Very original!»

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