The fu Mattia Pascal

Director's notes

"I can say that since then I have enjoyed laughing at all my misfortunes and all my torments".
It was precisely the words that Pirandello makes his protagonist say that suggested to us the key to telling the story of Mattia Pascal. We wanted to experiment with a language that could be accessible and appealing to everyone, especially the new generations. With the aim of moving away from the dusty vision erroneously associated with some literary masterpieces, we chose a vital, dynamic and amused point of view of this “truly strange case”.
Together with Raffaele Toninelli, who created a musical dramaturgy on the text, we created a non-realistic atmosphere. We did not want to set the text precisely in the early years of the last century, we preferred to translate it and drag it through the ‘900s to accommodate the contemporary nature of the themes dealt with in the work: the relationship with one's identity, today multiplied by the many “profiles” which we now use daily to communicate on social networks. But also rebirth, after the upheaval of our lives during the pandemic.
“I will transform myself with patient study so that, in the end, I can say not only that I have lived twice, but that I have been two different men.”
Pascal thus seems to be asking not only for another chance, as we all often dream of, to start anew or to correct past mistakes. But he also wants to “inhabit” another person, new, different, unknown. From these two phrases, from these two ideas, came the idea of proposing the story of Mattia Pascal and Adriano Meis to the public, allowing us the freedom to play with these two characters and emphasising the humour in the text, while leaving the original style and language intact.
Because a text, even if it is a classic, remains a pre-text for communicating with the public. And given the historical moment, it is better to do it lightly.

Giorgio Marchesi