Le due calebasse
fiaba senegalese da Birago Diop
by Mandiaye N'Diaye
on stage: Mandiaye N’Diaye . direction: Marco Martinelli . production: Teatro delle Albe
Debut Vicenza, Teatro Astra, december 13 1990
Press reviews:
"… lo spettacolo allestito da Martinelli non mira tanto a suggerire dei definitivi significati esistenziali, quanto a comporre una suggestiva trama di immagini irreali, tra l’incubo e il delirio mistico. La scena riproduce un puro spazio della psiche, una piattaforma circolare che emblematicamente ha l’aspetto di un disco, dietro il quale galleggiano nell’aria forme luminose a metà tra i proiettori dei concerti e le vetrate di una cattedrale. … In questo contesto acido, sfuggente, Ermanna Montanari ingaggia la sua lotta all’ultimo sangue col testo: avvolta in un abitino nero con una croce rossa sul petto, ambigua parodia di una veste talare, incarna una creatura insieme inerme e un po’ sinistra, gira su se stessa come un derviscio rotante, inventa sorprendenti scansioni vocali".
(Renato Palazzi, "Il Sole 24 Ore", june 26 2005)
"… Ravenna Teatro ha sintetizzato per la scena, con adattamento e regia di Marco Martinelli, il grande delirio di Jerry, rivissuto dopo la sua scomparsa dalla sorella incestuosa, suora in proprio col nome egizio di Isis: e, come nell’Isola di Alcina, è una grande Ermanna Montanari ad assumerne il ruolo, danzando in tondo sulla scena-disco e inventandosi una voce di roca potenza per battersi col rock reso tonante dalle risonanze elettroniche di Luigi Ceccarelli…".
(Franco Quadri, "la Repubblica", june 27 2005)
"[…] Marco Martinelli, finally, the deus ex machina: he has taken from the omonimous novel by Luca Doninelli (Garzanti 2001) a libretto for La mano. Martinelli claims the text is by Doninelli as he kept parts of the books as they were. But he himself did the editing of these very parts. It is an amazing jigsaw puzzle with repetitions, sudden jumps, and obsessive reiteration of the same themes. His direction comes from a professional-erotical relationship of incredible lenght (20 years) with Ermanna Montanari. Then he welcomes external (but not that external) collaborators (Ceccarelli, Longuemare, Sanchi), he does not just put together, he finds the common point. A great director of our times".
(Mario Gamba, "A Teatro", march 28 2005)
"A monodrama, played with strenght by Ermanna Montanari on an high and tense chord and beautifully written by Luca Doninelli, put on stage with transfigured and dry violence by Marco Martinelli, with extraordinarily “perspectical” and striking lights by Vincent Longuemare, with scenes and costumes created by Edoardo Sanchi very precise and “talking” as usual. This show is an excellent production which went to Belgium and France and now goes to Turin and Volterra. […] It would be great to find, once in a while, something similar to La mano in our bulky and moaning opera theatres".
(Roberto Verti, "il giornale della musica", june 27 2005)
"[…] Squassato a tratti dal dolente contaltare di un Mickey Mouse formato gigante che adempie alle infernali funzioni di un Cerbero sado-masoch incaricato di scortare la nuova Winnie nel suo definitivo viaggio al termine della notte. Impietosamente frugato dalle luci di taglio, magnifiche e truculente, di Vincente Longuemare, questo apologo noir è calato per intero su un immenso 33 giri dove, scontrosa e solitaria, piroetta Ermanna, sinistra libellula del gioco mortale.Tramutatasi, alla fine, nell’inerte pick up del microsolco dopo essere passata attraverso un’infinita serie di stazioni di marca espressionista che illustrano lo sconcerto contemporaneo […]".
(Enrico Groppali, "Il Giornale", july 12 2005)
"[…] The inventiveness of Ceccarelli is simply masterly: he has sampled and re-invented the sonorities of two electric guitars, bass and drums. Rock goes off with stunning power feeding Montanari’s punk wrath […]".
(Giordano Montecchi, "l‚ÄôUnit?†", july 5 2005)
"[…] La mano is a show of extraordinary intensity, an ode to rock masterly played on timings and dynamics of great tension; a powerful visceral nightmare crammed with balanced symbolisms that shows once again Martinelli’s great narrative freedom, that is hard to cage up in whatsoever kind of form […]".
(Alessandro Fogli, "Corriere di Romagna", june 25 2005)
"La mano is really tragically close to our bitter reality. With its usual mastery the company goes beyond the text and comes up with a show where the echoes of past and future are stirred together.".
(Walter Porcedda, "La Nuova Sardegna", june 1 2005)
"[…] Antonin Artaud talked about “maddening the support”, that is bringing the instrument one is using to its extreme. The instrument the director meant to use was Ermanna Montanari’s body-voice and her impressive switching between vocal frequencies: from extremely low to extrtemely high. A unique vocal extension associated with a physical presence aimed at reducing actions and loading them with energy, in a massive work of movement substraction and of substitution of those with emissions of sounds.".
(Alberto Marchesani, "Accrocchio", june 24 2005)
"[…] The work is perfect with its close rythms, swinging between excess and pause in the tight correspondence between word, scene and music for which Luigi Ceccarelli has found an intriguing key, inspired by rock but contaminated by noises and electronic sonorities of great emotional impact. Ermanna Montanari plays her body and her voice, acting and looking like she is singing at the same time: it is a perpetual body-to-body relationship between her- emotions, body, voice- and music, nailing the audience to their seats and enchanting them with the dragon's look".
(Serena Simoni, "Ravenna e dintorni", june 30 2005)
