France – Homage to Eleonora Duse with Elena Bucci
Elena Bucci – award-winning actress, author, director, and founder with Marco Sgrosso of Le belle bandiere theatre company – stages in Paris Non sentire il male (Feeling no Pain), the performance with which she pays homage to Eleonora Duse (1858-1924), an actress, a director, and a manager who transformed the theatrical scene of her time.
Non sentire il male is an intense monologue, with live piano accompaniment by Maestro Andrea Agostini, that follows the life, the loves, and the art of the ‘Divina’ Eleonora, sketching the portrait of an extraordinary woman and artist. Glimpses, fragments of life, to the very crucial point in Duse’s existence: that time of absolute freedom when the actress, replaced in the tragedy La figlia di Iorio because of her illness, rehearses all the roles before her friend, writer Matilde Serao.
“I drew on letters, writings, indirect testimonies, and the selection criteria were absolutely personal, yet in the attempt to understand and respect”, Bucci writes in her direction notes. “Over time, I discovered many faces of Eleonora, her many ages and multiple aptitudes (…). From them all – merged into a single vortex of original and revolutionary energy –, I learned that you can never say you captured the essence of a life, as any life is an endless novel.”
The performance is presented by the Italian Cultural Institute in Paris on February 15 (7 pm) as part of the celebration of the centenary of Eleonora Duse’s death – celebration included in the list of anniversaries in 2024-2025 with which UNESCO could be associated.