Three monologues by the spousal
team of Franca Rame and Dario Fo, about the subjugation of women in Italy, are
performed with tempestuous bravura by the brilliant Francesca Fanti. In the
first (and best) play a women is locked in her apartment by an abusive husband
and talks across an invisible courtyard with a friendly neighbor, telling of
her yearnings and why she is being punished for embracing life unashamed.
In the next play she is a prostitute,
in an orange jumpsuit, jailed for taking revenge on a vindictive john. In the
last she abandons herself to furious love-making while in terror of getting
pregnant and, when she has the child, moves into a world of fantasy and horror.
All of these playlets are about women in 1970’s Italy, but remind one of recent
headlines in the US.
Although Rame and Fo wrote
and performed together for almost 60 years, in 1997 he was awarded the Nobel
Prize in Literature. In his acceptance speech he said: “Let me share this medal with Franca... Without her at my side,
where she has been for a lifetime, I would never have accomplished the work you
have seen fit to honor. Together we've staged and recited thousands of
performances, in theatres, occupied factories, at university sit-ins, even in
deconsecrated churches, in prisons and city parks, in sunshine and pouring
rain, always together. Believe me, this prize belongs to both of us.”
Two Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m.
at the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles, 1023 Hilgard Avenue, Westwood
Village. For information on future performances:
(424) 281-0082 or www.Hera-Asteriaproductions.com.
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