Adapted from the novel of the same name by Nicola Lagioia, winner of the Strega Prize and the Mondello Prize, La Ferocia portrays the triumph and downfall of the West. It does so by telling the story of the Salvemini family, a family saga in which the sins of the fathers are mirrored in the weaknesses of their children. A bestiary that describes our inability to suppress the instinct to dominate and our perpetual bondage to the laws of nature.
Vittorio Salvemini came from nowhere and, as expected, wants it all. A builder from Puglia who arrived in Bari in his early thirties, from the 1970s onwards he racked up a string of professional successes that led him to become the owner of construction sites where the sun never sets, from Bari to Phuket, via Paris and Istanbul. Only the contradictions inherent in any unbridled rise will succeed in shattering his certainties. Linked to these is the death of his daughter Clara, found naked and covered in blood on the country road linking Bari to Taranto.
“According to some, the discipline that best explains the new century is ethology. Put a hungry fox in front of a flock of rabbits and you’ll see them run. Run into a square full of pigeons and you’ll see them fly. Find the pigeon that doesn’t fly.”
The story of the Salveminis has the intensity of a contemporary tragedy, both particular and universal at the same time, and is brought to life by the words penned by a great novelist, born and raised in a South that has always been steeped in great narratives.
dal romanzo di
Nicola Lagioia
ideazione
VicoQuartoMazzini
regia
Michele Altamura
Gabriele Paolocà
adattamento
Linda Dalisi
con (in ordine alfabetico)
Roberto Alinghieri
Michele Altamura
Leonardo Capuano
Enrico Casale
Gaetano Colella
Francesca Mazza
Gabriele Paolocà
Andrea Volpetti
scene
Daniele Spanò
costumi
Lilian Indraccolo
disegno luci
Giulia Pastore
musiche
Pino Basile
aiuto regia
Jonathan Lazzini
realizzazione scenografie
Officina Scenotecnica Gli Scarti
direttore di scena
Daniele Corsetti
progetto audio
Niccolò Menegazzo
datore luci
Marco Piazze
consulenza artistica
Gioia Salvatori
produzione
Scarti Centro di Produzione Teatrale d’Innovazione,
Elsinor Centro di Produzione Teatrale,
LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura,
Romaeuropa Festival,
Tric Teatri di Bari,
Teatro Nazionale di Genova
In conceiving the direction of the production, we chose to place Clara’s body – in its deafening absence – at the centre, captured in the gaze of all those who believed they could possess it. Surrounding this is the abysmal and bloody vanity of power, represented by the other family members and all those involved in their affairs. As a counterpoint, we have a stepson who returns like a modern-day Orestes to cry out for vengeance, and a journalist obsessed with a frenzied hunger for truth and a boundless love for the land of his birth.
With La Ferocia, we allow ourselves the chance to portray the South not as an exception but as the rule. And consequently we ask ourselves: can the South be a synecdoche? Can it rise to the role of protagonist in the drama of a world out of step, where the economic collapse of the West and the incommunicability between environmental sustainability and progress are merely some of the subtexts we refuse to interpret? After all, the South knows this part well; it learnt it by heart many centuries ago, repeating it under its breath, and now it is ready to reveal it to a humanity that has ceased to extend its tentacles to cling to narratives of stale economic, social and political systems, now incapable of translating the changes of the present.
“Music enters the villages and gathers the pain of every single soul, scattering it once more amongst the rocks and olive groves, like the ashes of dead generations, so that the same peace may rest upon each one. In this lies the unhappiness of the South, its untouched privilege.”
Born out of the collaboration between Michele Altamura and Gabriele Paolocà, VicoQuartoMazzini – winner of the 2021 Hystrio Award for Best Emerging Company – explores both original works and reinterpretations of the great classics of theatre and literature. The aim of their work is to uncover the great stories capable of exploring the pressing issues of our time and to tell them through the infinite possibilities of the performing arts.
