On stage at the Augusteo Theater in Naples "I Menecmi" by Tato Russo, which contaminates Plautus' classic with Shakespeare's "The Comedy of equivocations" and the Neapolitan comic tradition
It will be held tonight, al Augustan theater of Naples, the first of the famous show The Menecms, the workhorse of Tato Russian, of which he is the author and actor, with the direction of Livio Galassi.
I Menecmi - Two Neapolitan twins, is taken from the classical comedy of the Latin author Plautus, Entitled Menaechmus, written towards the end of the third century BC and which still represents the reference model of the “Comedy of the Misunderstandings” today. The story tells of two twin brothers who bear the same name (Menecmo) and the loss and kidnapping of one of the two. From this initial episode a series of confusing, comical and equivocal actions are triggered, which are based on the high similarity of the two brothers which allows them continuous involuntary role exchanges.
Tato Russo brings his de version The Menecms around Italy from 600 replicas, obtaining an incredible success with the public, probably because he merges, in his free elaboration, the original classical work with the Comedy of Equivocal of Shakespeare and with the comic art of Neapolitan popular theater. The result is an authentic masterpiece of comic art where a perfect comic mechanism dominates and a great acting performance for Tato, praised by critics and the public for this extraordinary interpretation.
“I have been carrying my Plautus-inspired Menecmas around Italy for twenty-five years: in all this time my chronological age has changed, and it has become tiring for me to play two parts. But the public and the theaters keep asking me for it, and today I find myself inventing the strength to be back on stage with this monstrous compound of fatigue and creative madness. Will I make it one more time? "
The story of de The Menecms di Tato Russo is set in an ancient Naples, the Neapolis of the time. But despite the fact that a vulgar and vulgar twin is opposed to the other, cultured and intellectual, who is a lawyer, both characters speak in Italian. The Neapolitan "touch" this “Plautina” story contaminated with Shakespeare is expressed through verbal exuberance, the plebeian term, lasso, joyful fun and comedy. The insertions of new characters due to Shakespeare's exemplary rewrite feed the game by transporting everything into a surreal and fantastic dimension.
Information on the show The Menecms
When: from 4 to 13 April 2014
Price tickets:
- Armchair: 35 euro
- Armchair: 25 euro
Where: Augusteo Theater, Piazza Duca D'Aosta 263, Naples
