I demoni ends in the fracas pain and stupor

A11 hours pétantes, Sunday morning, the scene of the workshops Berthier, Peter Stein, black suit, a big book to hand and a smile to the lips, gives the top departure from his "demons". A way to play down this mad Enterprise: wear full scene (without major Cup) the revisiting of Dostoyevsky (1,300 pages), is eleven hours of entertainment with frequent intermissions. The adaptation of the great German Director, presented for the first time last year in his villa of Umbria, with some 30 Italian actors virtuosos, is not a work force: it is the generous Act of a creator, determined to bring to life a masterpiece of the literature, with the magic of theatre - with the active complicity of the public. The characters of the "tragedy" of Dostoevsky are often aimed at spectators, Grigoreïev (Andrea Nicolini) head, fine diplomat and objective observer of small provincial Russian boiling. During any representation, it plays the role of the thoughtful Narrator.

Furious saga

On the think written for the theatre this furious saga - both characters are striking, both dialogues come! The work of Stein summarized in two words: clarity and fluidity. The ex-patron of the Schaubühne in Berlin (1970-1987) opted for a simple decor (pivoting walls, black and white curtains, stands, tables, chairs, carpets...) and costumes of repetition, thus preserving the spirit of workshop: for the text, the word, gesture, all for the game... By eliminating the redundant, it lays bare the springs of the tragedy, which seems to invent before us. It is immersed in the deep Russia of the 1870s, which just to reinvent itself between mad utopia and despair: ten years after the abolition of serfdom, youth is, more than reform, designing a new man to equal with God. The son jostling the fathers, who have planted the seeds of the revolution; pulling all threads at a time (socialism, anarchism, nihilism and nationalism), they are ready to do battle, to eliminate all the obstacles, to bombing and burning cities.

There is a dramatic increase in the show. In the first part, the comedy dominates. The power relationship between the very conservative General Varvara Pétrovna and his old "protected", the progressive Professor Stepan Trofimovich, hold almost of vaudeville. Each seeks, so that freedom of facade, plays bottom card of the abandon. It disrupts, it gives a claques, but he is not death of man - not yet. The second part is played in the night; It is the ball missed the Governor which gives the signal, as a pantomime of the apocalypse, while workers to unemployment are justice and the city burned. Utopias have not replaced God. Hope gave way to cessation, then the bitterness and hatred.

Fracas, pain and shock

The set of actors became feverish. The decor same top below fades in a fog of smoke. And the demons triumph, focusing on two possessed of choice: Piotr Stépanovitch - son of the old Professor-, Machiavellian and wants terrorist (great Alessandro Averone), Stalin (prophetic) sketch. And especially, Nikolai Stavroguine (son of the General), fatal dandy capable of all - evil (the rape of an 11 year old girl), as well (her marriage to a poor disabled); believer in everything and nothing. A tortured indecisive and pusillanimous. Neither hot nor cold, but "warm"... For Peter Stein, the young Russian misaligned, hero of Dostoevsky, represents the evil of the century, ours. Seeing the struggle in a vacuum (Ivan Alovisio, sober and fair), we think of the disenfranchised heroes of Bret Easton Ellis and it's cold in the back. "I demoni" ends in the fracas, pain, and stupor. It is more than 22 hours. Peter Stein and his performers to the Russian soul led us to the end of this trip at the end of the night, without we bored a single moment. In the room, standing, which applauds cheering this anthology show, a "owned" Spectator shouts: "still."