In Friedrich Schiller’s tragedy written at the end of the eighteenth century, power conflict over the crown turns into a passionate struggle played out on various emotional levels: from envy to martyrdom, from insult to prayer in a fierce battle that would determine not only the fate of England but of Europe and the world.
Starting from the principle that Schiller’s theatre portrays politics as the phenomenology of human destiny, director Davide Livermore concentrates on the relationship between femininity and power: “Before these towering figures, we can’t help but wonder how much each woman had to interiorize certain male mechanisms of power management”.
Onstage, after an initial moment of ritual, in a sort of dressing prologue, the two exceptional performers Laura Marinoni and Elisabetta Pozzi both Ubu and Flaiano prize winners – learn which character they will be playing that evening: a display of virtuoso acting intended to show how this cruel struggle between two royal opponents was really just the reflection of one and the same phenomenon.