The real and fictitious madness of Henry IV is staged at the Bellini Theater, the masterpiece of Pirandello by and with Franco Branciaroli
"Henry IV: Tragedy of Life that he could not live, strangled by a Form that had to be ephemeral and that, instead, swallowed it in itself, without escape". (Adriano Tilgher)
On the stage of the Bellini Theater in Naples (until Sunday 15 November 2015) the master actor and director Franco Branciaroli face for the first time Pirandello, through a sublime, elegant and shrewd staging of his masterpiece Henry IV. Written in three acts by the famous Sicilian author in 1921, the text appears to us, in Branciaroli's version and interpretation, more alive and current than ever.
La "Social mask", the imperceptible border between reality and fiction, between normality and madness, between the role imposed by society and the human essence, are the themes, typical of Pirandello, on which Branciaroli he decides to investigate, to ask questions and question us about the meaning of our existence, relying on the game of the theater and its artifices, as the master from Agrigento did through his theatrical production.
At the beginning of the 900th century a group of bored nobles decided to organize, on the occasion of the Carnival, a masked ride, each of them disguising themselves as a historical figure, sovereign or emperor, to be presented with their lady next to them. Strictly according to the customs of the time and on the back of a harnessed horse. A man decides to impersonate Henry IV, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. The Marchesa Matilde Spina, a woman of whom Henry IV is in love, and the Baron Belcredi also take part in this feast. For a stroke of bad luck Henry IV falls from his horse and beats his head. Become crazy and he begins to believe that he is really Henry IV and that he lives in 1100. All he can do is take refuge in a house completely transformed into a medieval castle, and he begins to surround himself with servants who support his madness.
Twenty years later Matilde Spina and Belcredi, their daughter Frida and a psychiatrist, go to Henry IV (whose real name is deliberately hidden by Pirandello himself for the duration of the drama), to understand the madness of man and to do so. come to your senses. But repeating the "scene" of the masked ride of the past and dressing up Frida with her mother's costume will not be enough to "heal" Henry IV, a man who, after 12 long years of royal madness, he decided to pretend to be insane for not accepting the reality that surrounded him: the one in which Belcredi had "stolen" his beloved Matilde.
Acted (or real?) Madness and real (or fictitious?) Lucidity alternate, thus, continuously on stage, expressed and "recognized" by the acting skills and the vocal tones of which he is very well able Franco Branciaroli, and by the shades of light and shadow that are reflected in a surreal and metaphysical atmosphere generated by a minimal but effective scenography, made up of steps, platforms and walkways.
Again the revelation of theatrical mechanisms and tricks, like period costumes that dropped from above, changes of clothes on stage and paintings that suddenly come to life, suggest to the viewer that what you see is all fake, but what happens on stage is all true, all real.
In the case of Enrico IV, we are witnessing the small, great human tragedy of not being able to deal with society and with its "inhabitants", to be afraid to show the true self, to come to the conclusion that wearing a mask, or rather pretending to be crazy, is much easier. An escape from the falsehood that permeates the world, a "safe prison" where you can finally live your own world. Even if this means staying to live in the distant 1100. The Pirandello lesson, at the end of the show, is clearer to everyone.
From the monologue of Henry IV
"I preferred to remain mad and live my madness with the clearest conscience [...] what for me is the obvious and voluntary caricature of this other masquerade, continuous, of every minute, of which we are the involuntary clowns when without knowing it we disguise ourselves as what we seem to be […] I am cured, gentlemen: because I know perfectly well that I am crazy here; and I do it, quiet! - The trouble is for you who live it agitatedly, without knowing it and without seeing your madness. […] This is my life! It is not yours! - Yours, in which you have grown old, I have not lived! "
