Francischiello - A King Hamlet of Naples at the New Sancarluccio Theater [Review]

Review of the show Franischiello - Un Amleto Re di Napoli, staged by Carmine Borrino to tell the last months of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies

There is something rotten in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. 

One of the best known quotes fromShakesperare's Hamlet, with the contextualization necessary for the performance of the work we want to talk about, well encloses what is the meaning and purpose of the monologue staged by the Neapolitan theater.

Francischiello - An Amleto King of Naples, show included in the review The whole world is Stage, dedicated to Shakespeare, was born from an original idea of ​​the actor and director Carmine Borrino who, following an in-depth Shakespearean study, managed to stage a masterful parallelism between the last Bourbon king of Naples and Hamlet.

It may seem strange or irrelevant, but if you reflect them similarities between the English text and the screenplay of the young Neapolitan actor are really many and fascinating.

“I saw the young prince, I spoke to him and the likeness of the king who died overwhelmed me with fear and amazement.
Incredible! The young prince resembles the king who died as I do to myself, and it is true that there are more things in heaven and on earth than I imagine with my imagination! "

Let's start with the basic idea, that is, to create one overlap between the Prince of Denmark and King Francis II of Bourbon, said Francischiello. Through a compelling and never boring monologue, Borrino manages to transport us in the crucial months of that summer of 1860 in which the fate of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies were about to be decided forever.

In fact, following the death of his father Ferdinando II, Francischiello will have to face internal and external betrayals, as well as the inevitable annexation-invasion of the Kingdom by the Savoy of Piedmont. To narrate it, Borrino uses the Shakespearean text as a guideline, a track on which to travel the history of our King lasagna.

The narrative takes its right from death of King Ferdinand II and the tormenting pain that afflicts his son, increasingly pressed to take the reins of the kingdom. This first parallel with Hamlet gives way to one of the most significant scenes of both writings: the appearance of the paternal phantom. As in the Shakespearean tragedy, Francischiello will also meet his father's ghost in the square of the royal palace, and he will discover the dense plot of betrayals that soon he would have suffered from the men closest to him as Hamlet was betrayed by King Claudio, brother of his father and also by his mother who becomes his woman.

From this moment on, the public will be faced with one personality mutation of the king who, pretending to be crazy and fool, will try to understand the true intentions of his Council of State. One succession of desperations, one after another, follows one after the other conflicts interiorwhich will result in thatTo be or not to be that not only denotes a restlessness and personal indecision, but also the uncertainty of going to war against Piedmont and avoiding an invasion.

The parallels, therefore, continue, if we think of Hamlet's feigned madness, revealed in the intense dialogue with Ofelia. Dialogue also taken up in the piéce, as Re Francesco will let off steam with the wife Sofia, also inviting her to “go to the convent” (same invitation received by Ofelia), but underlining the importance of her closeness in such a crucial moment for the kingdom.

The show ends with a long mention of the heard proclamation that Francischiello wrote in 1860 from Gaeta, a stronghold on the border with the Papal State where he was forced to retreat to fight the English and Piedmontese troops, until there was nothing more to be done.
The scene recited by Borrino was very significant because he represented a fearless king, waving the flag of the Kingdom, intent on defending with all his strength the people and the land that so loved.

A very intense ending, therefore, and not without an attempt to open the eyes of those present: the story, makes us understand Borrino, the winners and, in the case of Italian and southern in particular, since elementary ce they tell it without mentioning the due truth.