The Maria Brasca

On stage La Maria Brasca, alive and modern in the reading by André&e Ruth Shammah.
A feminine story drawn in the ‘60s with effective social realism by the great playwright Giovanni Testori. An indelible and timeless portrait of a woman capable of fighting and never giving up in the face of “sta bestiata che è il mondo”;

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Maria Brasca works as a shoemaker in a factory in Niguarda, on the outskirts of Milan, and – with some scandal for people – she makes love like men: without problems. But one day she happens to fall in love with a young man who is younger than her, not at all wealthy, a bit of a scoundrel, and who drives her crazy with passion. Brasca does not care if Romeo cheats on her. She knows that her love for Romeo is definitive and defends him like a tiger because she wants definitive things from him.

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An unforgettable female character, a winning woman who shouts to the world the power of passion and the love of life lived outside all convention: an incentive to pursue one's dreams and live with great confidence in the future.
In the ‘60s it was Franca Valeri who made it exist on the stage, but then, with my direction, for years it was the great success of Adriana Asti and now, in the hundredth anniversary of Testori’s birth and in the season of the 50th anniversary of the Parenti Theatre, I felt the need to revive “that” performance, that one and not another, because I was fascinated by Maria's will not to give in, to defend everything that represents her life and not to be afraid to speak of happiness (a state of mind so precious but absent from Testori's theatre and so rare in contemporary dramaturgy).
Today, watching Marina Rocco interpret the enchanting clarity of Maria's thoughts and seeing her so vibrant with childhood, with sensual severity, with that charm that envelops her without her making the slightest effort, it seems to me that she has been reborn to have a new, long life.

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Andréand Ruth Shammah