Donizetti Theatre Foundation
The Theater Season 2025-2026
Other Pathways

The fu Mattia Pascal
from the novel by Luigi Pirandello
with Giorgio Marchesi

February 5-7 at the Social Theater

 

Altri Percorsi, the Donizetti Theatre Foundation’s review dedicated to research theater, increases the number of performances on the occasion of The fu Mattia Pascal: the play based on Luigi Pirandello’s novel, brought to the stage by Giorgio Marchesi, will in fact have five performances at the Teatro Sociale on Feb. 5 and 6 (matinee, 10:30 a.m., and evening, 8:30 p.m.) and in the morning of Feb. 7 (10:30 a.m.). The Bergamasque actor signs both the adaptation and, together with Simonetta Solder, the direction.

Il fu Mattia Pascal, written and published in 1904, was Luigi Pirandello’s first highly successful novel.Giorgio Marchesi’s theatrical version exudes energy and irony, starting with Pirandello’s own phrase, “I can say that since then I have made a taste of 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,” the actor comments in the director’s notes, “We wanted to experiment with a language that could be accessible and palatable to everyone, even and especially to the new generations. Aiming to move away from the dusty view mistakenly associated with some literary masterpieces, we chose a vital, dynamic and amused point of view of this ‘really strange case.’ Together with Raffaele Toninelli, who created a musical dramaturgy on the text, we created an unrealistic 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 along the 1900s to go along with the contemporary nature of the themes dealt with in the work: the relationship with one’s identity, today multiplied by the many “profiles” we now use daily to communicate on social networks. But also rebirth, after the disruption of our lives during the pandemic.”

Hence “the idea was born to propose the story of Mattia Pascal and Adriano Meis to the audience, allowing us the freedom to play with these two characters and emphasizing the humor present in the text, while leaving the original style and language intact. Because a text, even if a classic, remains a pre-text for communicating with the audience. And given the historical moment, better to do it lightly,” Giorgio Marchesi concludes.

At the end of each of the five performances, there will be a meeting with Giorgio Marchesi, coordinated by Maria Grazia Panigada, Artistic Director of the Prose Season and Other Pathways.