Casanova

The Vascello Theater is currently hosting the play Casanova, directed by Fabio Condemi. Inspired by the autobiographical memoirs recounted in Story of My Life by the famous Venetian intellectual Giacomo Casanova, the play features Sandro Lombardi, a leading figure in the Italian theater scene.

The play is set in Dux Castle, Bohemia, in the winter of 1798, where a doctor expert in mesmerism is called to examine a man in the twilight of his life: Giacomo Casanova, a librarian in the service of the Count of Waldstein for fifteen years, who seeks to recover his lost memory through a mesmeric session. Now battered and embittered, Casanova spends his days among old books and constantly clashing with courtiers who speak to him in a language he doesn't understand. During the mesmeric session with a doctor, Casanova's altered state of consciousness opens the doors of his memory, allowing room for memories to surface, which, however, are not those described in his Mémoires: they are visions, premonitions, and apparitions. The doctor listens to the whole narration, a narration populated by ghosts, a true journey back in time, in which characters from his past appear such as the friar Balbi, the young Henriette he loves and the esoteric Marquise D’Urfé.

The show is therefore a reflection on the memory and time of an entire era dominated by the figure of this great philosopher, magician, and con artist, who lived through the Age of Enlightenment and passed away at the end of the 18th century, during a time of great transformation that ushered in modernity.

By Fabrizio Sinisi; directed by Fabio Condemi, starring Sandro Lombardi and featuring Marco Cavalcoli, Simona De Leo, Alberto Marcello, Betti Pedrazzi.

Characters and performers: Sandro Lombardi (Casanova), Marco Cavalcoli (mesmerist), Simona De Leo (Henriette), Alberto Marcello (Voltaire), Betti Pedrazzi (Marchese D'Urfé); actor to be announced (Casanova as a child).

Photo: official poster of the show