Story of a blackcap

Story of a blackcap, a drama based on the novel of the same name by Giovanni Verga written in 1861 and partly autobiographical, is on stage at the Quirino Theater directed by Guglielmo Ferro.

The story revolves around the story of the main protagonist Maria and is narrated, as in the novel, through the letters that the young novice writes to a fellow convent named Marianna. In the letters we learn that, while the cholera contagion is raging in Catania, Maria is forced to temporarily abandon her convent to return home to her father and her stepmother, Matilde. During this period the young woman, who has lived in a convent since she was a young girl, discovers life outside the cloister and is enchanted by it. Maria also meets Nino, a young student son of family friends with whom she falls in love, reciprocated: he invites her to dance during a village festival and courts her on several occasions. This important experience gives rise to in her the sense of a freer and more open life, and leads her to conceive a growing aversion for the conventual environment.

Unfortunately the relationship between the two is nipped in the bud by the intervention of the family, who decide that Nino marries Maria's sister (Giuditta). Maria is therefore forced to return to the convent where she dies almost mad after a long agony.

With Enrico Guarneri and Nadia De Luca.

Photo credits: courtesy of  the Quirino Theater official site