Bene’s theatre film or televised version of his theatre adaptation of Richard III was made in 1977 and first broadcast on Italian RAI TV in 1981. The film was dedicated to the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, who replied to the dedication by writing ‘Un manifesto di meno’ on Bene’s art. The text appeared in 1978 in Sovrapposizioni, a book which also contained Bene’s script of Riccardo III as well as his response to Deleuze’s piece. Read More
Teatro Stabile d’Innovazione Galleria Toledo produced a feature film by the title “Il Re Muore” (The King Dies) directed by Laura Angiulli, founder of Galleria Toledo and company director, and sponsored by the Campania Region and the Italian Ministry of Culture. The movie is freely inspired by the Shakespearean drama “Richard II”, reinterpreting the work in a visionary way, while staying true to the plot and the text. A necessary synthesis which respects the original poetry. Read More
This TV version of Bene’s Otello is based on a video recording made in the Torino RAI Studios in 1979. The editing was done more than twenty years later, in 2001, by RAI Educational, commissioned by Bene himself, who supervised the entire process. Otello’s first cue is: “E’ la causa, anima mia” (“It is the cause, my soul”, 1’01”) Read More
Troilo e Cressida (Trolius and Cressida) is a 2009 Italian stage adaptation performed by members of the Teatro dei Borgia and directed by Gianpiero Borgia. Read More
This Italian adaptation of Julius Caesar was performed at the ‘Globe to Globe’ Festival in London in 2012. The production was winner of the Certamen Almagro Off – Festival Internacional de Teatro Clásico de Almagro (Spain). Read More
Research Article
Anna Maria Cimitile, ‘Tragedy and Shakespeare Performance Studies in Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio’s Giulio Cesare (1997) and Macbeth su Macbeth (2014)’, Cahiers Élisabéthains 96.1, 2018, pp 102-116, ISSN 0184-7678 (DOI: 10.1177/0184767818768092)
Abstract: The article discusses two productions, respectively of Julius Caesar and Macbeth, by the experimental Italian theatre company Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio (SRS). My wider scope is a reflection on what I may call the ‘peregrinations’ of the sense of the tragic in our times; my more specific question is: How is the Shakespearean tragic envisioned by SRS? What does their ‘performative thinking’ reveal about tragedy and our sense of the tragic today? As the performances are in Italian, based on Italian translations of Shakespeare, the question of the different language will also be briefly considered, to listen to the ‘ear of the other’ in critical action.
There were three Hamlets in the production, sometimes taking turns, sometimes together on stage. The idea reflected the schizophrenia of Hamlet. The arrangement allowed the audience to see different forms of Hamlet’s madness and confront different aspects of the protagonist’s personality. Read More
In this production of Hamlet, there were three Hamlets, sometimes taking turns, sometimes together on stage. The idea reflected the schizophrenia of Hamlet. The arrangement allowed the audience to see different forms of Hamlet’s madness and confront different aspects of the protagonist’s personality. Read More
An Italian adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest directed by Giorgio Strehler in 1983. Read More
Paolo and Vittorio Taviani’s docudrama about real-life convicts staging Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Winner of the Golden Bear for best film at the 62nd Berlinale.
Production: KaosCinematografica and Rai Cinema
Distribution: RaiTrade
Cast: Flavio Bucci, Gianna Nannini, Alberto Lionello, Erica Blanc, Giuseppe Cederna, Alessandro Haber and others.
Music by Mauro Pagani
King LeoR (1996) is a documentary about the making of King Lear, directed by Leo de Berardinis (1939-2008) who was an innovative director and actor of the Italian theatre. Read More
Shakespeare’s play and Jules Laforgue’s fin-de-siècle Hamlet ou les suites de la piété filiale (1887), a version of the Hamlet story, are merged in Carmelo Bene’s film Un Amleto di meno (One Hamlet Less; Italy, 1973). From Laforgue, Bene takes some speeches as well as the characters of Kate and William – two actors of the theatre company arrived at Elsinore, with William also being the capocomico or lead actor and theatre manager – and the title of the film, which is from the French text’s conclusion: ‘Un Hamlet de moins; la race n’en est pas perdue, qu’on se le dise!’. Read More
The film was shot as one of the episodes in Capriccio all’italiana (Italy, 1968; producer Dino De Laurentiis) The actors: Totò (Jago), Ninetto Davoli (Otello), Laura Betti (Desdemona), Franco Franchi (Cassio), Ciccio Ingrassia (Roderigo), Adriana Asti (Bianca), Carlo Pisacane (Brabanzio). The Italian popular singer Domenico Modugno is the ‘immondezzaro’ or dustman, while the writer Francesco Leonetti, co-founder with Pasolini and Roberto Roversi of the journal Officina in 1955, plays in the film as the puppeteer Read More
