Fanny & Alexander and Menoventi in Albania and Romania for the Holocaust Remembrance Day
On the occasion of the Holocaust Remembrance Day 2024, two works by the Ravenna based Fanny & Alexander and Menoventi theatre companies are presented by the Italian Cultural Institutes in Tirana and in Bucharest.
On January 25, in Tirana, the Italian Cultural Institute in co-operation with the Metropol Theatre presents Se questo è Levi (If this is Levi), the multi-awarded show by Fanny & Alexander theatre company dedicated to the Holocaust survivor Italian writer.
The performance is a one-to-one dialogue with the author, an attempt to concretely experience the “account”, and make the power and need for his witness pour out. Starting from audio and video recordings from archives, the actor Andrea Argentieri plays the role of the writer, imitating his voice, gestures, poses, tones, and his speeches. “Primo Levi – explains director Luigi De Angelis – is among the intellectuals who are most lacking in our days and to whom one naturally returns every time there is an urgent need to ask questions about freedom, rights, imprisonment, the value of memory and testimony”.
The same value of memory and testimony marks the work by Menoventi theatre company Lei conosce Arpad Weisz? (Do you know Árpád Weisz?). It is a reading based on Matteo Marani’s book Dallo scudetto ad Auschwitz (From the Championship to Auschwitz), that tells a story forgotten by everyone for more than sixty years. Árpád Weisz was a great football coach – perhaps the greatest in his time – who fell victim to the racial laws and had to flee with his family from Italy. They were later arrested and separated, and deported in two concentration camps, where they died. In the narration curated by Menoventi, this heartbreaking story reaches the audience “with the vehemence of a punch in the stomach”.
The performance is presented by the Italian Cultural Institute in Bucharest in co-operation with the State Jewish Theatre, where it will be staged on January 27, and in co-operation with the Casa Tranzit in Cluj-Napoca, which will host it on January 28.
- more: Se questo è Levi
- more: Lei conosce Arpad Weisz?