QUAI OUEST

by Bernard-Marie Koltès

translated by Saverio Vertone

direction Paolo Magelli

set design Lorenzo Banci

costumes Leo Kulas

light design Roberto Innocenti

music Arturo Annecchino

dramaturg Željka Udovičič

with (in order of appearance)

new production Teatro Metastasio Stabile della Toscana

in collaboration with Spoleto57 Festival of 2Worlds

I believe it was Walter Benjamin who said, in a conversation with a group of young German and Austrian writers in Munich, when the dark clouds of Nazism still seemed far off on the horizon, for the occasion of a reunion for the Buchner prize, that the greatest works can be retold in two minutes.

And well, Quai Ouest is a great, biting, tragic mural which unequivocally heralds the end of our culture and our society.

Like all great works of criticism, this work does violence to the moral and political values our society is based upon, questioning the survival of not only our culture, but of the culture of our peoples. And it does so in a tragicomic way, analysing us with the same curiosity a child has when he first discovers an ant hill.

Monique and Koch – one, a laic who is continuously chasing after herself, the other, a Catholic intellectual, administrator of ecclesiastic property and assets who has completely lost all sense of money, as well as of faith – they are both middle-class bourgeois who are lost in a new "jungle city", a jungle situated on the (left?) bank of a river, near the port of a mysterious ferry, where abandoned warehouses, cut through by a freeway, still stand.

Koch knows well that this is the place where the new bosses reign.

They are protagonists of the suburban subculture which we know all too well by now.

In the meantime, a family of South American immigrants, Rodolfe, Cécile, Charles and Claire, a young delinquent with high hopes by the name of Fak, and a mysterious black creature that everyone calls Abad, teach us with comedic cruelty who we are, where we are going, and why our battle for survival is lost for good.

Koltés is courageous enough to put down on paper a Shakespearean structure, placing, just as the great English master did, monologue at the centre of his drama.

The result of this work is incredible, because the author is able to reach sublime peaks of poetry, and, betraying the mania of the fragmentary dramaturgy which is his contemporary, and well known to us, reveals that he understands the theatrical machine like few others.

For him, form is only a vehicle and not the destination, as he shows us in his other works, transforming continuously until they change completely as, for example, in Roberto Zucco, his most recent work.

Paolo Magelli was born in Prato. Not yet 20 years old, he joined the company Teatro Studio in Teatro Metastasio, and became its director. He collaborated with Giorgio Stehler, drafting the texts for the famous reform of Tuscan, and then Italian, theatre, both of which were never put into act.

In the early 1970s, he left Prato, and in 1974, he began working in Belgrade, an opportunity which allowed him to collaborate with the most important centers of Ex-Yugoslavia, earning numerous awards. He worked for the Théâtre de l’Est parisien (today known as the Théâtre national de la Colline) and began a collaboration with French theatre which continues today.

Magelli’s plays began to tour throughout Europe.

In 1985, he left Belgrade and moved to Zagreb, where he became the artistic director of ZKM Theatre.

In 1989, he was invited as permanent director in Wuppertal, at Pina Bausch’s Wuppertaler Bühnen theatre, where he remained until 1995, directing at least a dozen plays.

He was taken by surprise by the outbreak of war in Zagreb while working on Horváth’s Faith, Hope, and Charity, which had to be performed at noon because of blackouts.

He soon clashed with the Tudjman regime, and was barred from the Croatian theatrical circle.

In 1995, after three years of exclusion, he decided to stage another independently financed play in Zagreb, The Cherry Orchard, in the foyer of the semi-destroyed Gavella Theatre.

Once again, his plays toured throughout Europe and the rest of the world.

With Three Sisters, he once again won the Grand Prix at the Sarajevo Festival, the first one since the war ended.

In 2000, on the occasion of the anniversary of the Crusades, he worked with the Ramallah National Palestinian Theatre and the Israeli theatres of Tel Aviv, Akko and Haifa. This would be the last encounter between Palestinian and Israeli actors. Goran Bregovic and his entire orchestra worked with him in this project.

In 2003, he moved from Vienna to Dresden, where he worked continuously at the Staatschauspiel until 2009.

In 2005, the Teatro Metastasio invited him to stage one of his earlier plays from Zagreb, A Month in the Country, and for the first time since he left, Magelli returned to Prato, where he starts a new project, named "Cantiere disperazione".

In 2010, he became the director at the Teatro Metastasio Stabile della Toscana. He continues to collaborate as director with theatres in Serbia, Croatia, and Germany.

Paolo Magelli has staged more than 140 shows in various theatres around the world.

He studied acting at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (Italian Experimental film centre) in the early 1960s, under the prestigious teachings of Andrea Camilleri and Orazio Costa Giovangigli. First notable role was as Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, directed by Franco Zeffirelli. He was Ruzante in L’Anconitana e Bilora, directed by Gianfranco De Bosio.

He starred in Marco Bellocchio’s film La Cina è vicina. He worked with Carlo Cecchi for many years, taking part in Pinter’s The Birthday Party and The Homecoming, in the role of Max. At the Argentina theatre, he was Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, directed by Franco Enriquez, and the Cavalier di Ripafratta in Locandiera, with Valeria Moriconi and Glauco Mauri. He was Dionysius in Syracuse in The Bacchae directed by Walter Pagliaro, and worked with Pagliaro again in Torino, as Apemantus in Timon of Athens. He was also Jason in Mario Missiroli’s Medea.

In the ‘90s, he began working with Peter Stein in Titus Andronicus, in the role of Aaron, and then in Syracuse-Epidaurus as Creonte with Maddalena Crippa.

He was the Father in Sei Personaggi in cerca d’autore directed by Carlo Cecchi, Filippo in Trilogia della villeggiatura directed by Toni Servillo, and in 2013, for the Spoleto Festival, he reprised his role as Max in The Homecoming, directed by Stein.

He was Giove in Operette Morali, directed by Mario Martone, and Oedipus in Oedipus together with Alberto Bassetti. His pièce de résistance: Samuel Beckett’s First Love.

Marina Confalone, actress, author, and director, born in Naples, she began working in Eduardo de Filippo’s company. An important point in her artistic career is her long lasting partnership with Carlo Cecchi. She became known to the wider public through Luciano De Crescenzo’s films. She has received important acknowledgements for her cinematographic work, including two Nastri d’argento (Silver Ribbons), one Ciak d’oro (Golden Ciak) and four David di Donatello awards, the last of which she earned as the lead actress in the film Incantesimo Napoletano.

Valentina Banci graduated from the Vittorio Gassman’s Bottega Teatrale in 1993. In theatre, she has worked as an actress with Paolo Giuranna, Nanni Garella, Leo de Berardinis, Giancarlo Cobelli, Alvaro Piccardi, Daniele Griggio, Alberto Di Stasio, Giorgio Albertazzi, Massimo Luconi, Angelo Savelli, Gianluigi Pieralli, Carlos Martin, José Sanchis Sinisterra, Paolo Magelli, Jon Andreas Tombre and Simon Boberg. In 2007, she founded, together with a group of Tuscan authors, actors and set designers, the theatre company Kulturificio n.7. She oversees the direction of its four shows (Fiasco!!!, Stracci, Quando la montagna era alta per davvero, L’uomo più forte del mondo, written by Tommaso Santi – in English, Fiasco!!!, Rags, When the mountain was high for real, The world’s strongest man), in which she also performs. For television, she has taken part in enormously popular television series, both for the Rai and Mediaset networks. From 2011 on, she is part of the resident company of Teatro Metastasio Stabile della Toscana, participating in the following productions: "Giochi di famiglia" (Family Stories) by B. Srbljanovic, directed by Paolo Magelli; "La cantatrice calva" (The Bald Soprano) by E. Ionesco, directed by Massimo Castri; "Il giardino dei ciliegi" (The Cherry Orchard) by A. Cechov, directed by Paolo Magelli; "I fratelli Karamazov" (The Brothers Karamazov) by F. Dostoevskij, directed by Guido de Monticelli; "Isola" (Island) by T. Santi and "Hotel Belvedere" by O. Von Horvath, directed by Paolo Magelli.

Mauro Malinverno graduated in 1986 from the civica scuola of dramatic art "Piccolo Teatro di Milano"; he received the national prize "The Golden Key" at the Festival of the Teatro Taormina Arte for best young novice actor, standing out for his interpretation in Arthur Schnitzler’s La Ronde, directed by Massimo Castri. From 1986 to 2001, he worked with Massimo Castri in numerous successful performances, and in 1995 received the national critics’ Agis award, the "Golden Ticket", in two plays produced by Teatro Metastasio: Oreste and Trilogia della villeggiatura. He also worked with Luca Ronconi, Andrée Ruth Shammah, Cristina Pezzoli, Gigi Dall’Aglio, Arpad Schilling, Nanni Garella and many other directors. In 2005, he worked with Paolo Magelli in "Animali nella nebbia" (Animals in the Fog). Immediately after he played the part of Van Gogh in "L’odore assordante del bianco" (The Deafening Smell of White), written and directed by Stefano Massini. He is member of the resident company of Teatro Metastasio Stabile della Toscana, participating in "La cantatrice calva" (The Bald Soprano), directed by Massimo Castri, "I fratelli Karamazov" (The Brothers Karamazov), directed by Guido de Monticelli, and as well as in all of the productions directed by Paolo Magelli: "Giochi di famiglia", "Il giardino dei ciliegi", "Isola", and "Hotel Belvedere".

Graduated in Literature and Philosophy with the highest grades, Francesco works in theatre, cinema and TV. In theatre, he was directed by Paolo Magelli, Giancarlo Cobelli, Massimo Castri, Marco Plini, Nikolaj Karpov, Loredana Scaramella, Guido De Monticelli, Giampiero Cicciò, Josè Sanchis Sinisterra, Carlos Martin, Angelo Savelli, Pupetto Castellaneta, Mamadou Dioume, and others. For cinema and tv series, he worked with Goran Vojnovic, Gianni Lepre, Antonello Grimaldi, Alfredo Peyretti, Rossella Izzo, Gianfranco Albano, Fabio Lombardelli, Giancarlo Torre, Elisabetta Marchetti, Riccardo Mosca, Monica Vullo, and many others. In 2007, together with the group of actors, directors and various artists he founded Kulturificio n. 7. Currently he is a member of the Teatro Metastasio’s company.

Fabio Mascagni was born in Prato in 1976. Graduating in 1999 from Florence’s Laboratorio Nove, directed by Barbara Nativi, he continued his training as an actor, participating in an EEC course on Contemporary International Drama, led by Martin Crimp, Xavier Durringer, and Patrice Bigel, among others. In 2003, he lived and worked in Berlin, where, together with other artists from different European countries, he worked on a project on the Decameron, directed by Ingo Kerkoff. He has participated in seminars led by Giancarlo Cobelli, Valerio Binasco, Marcello Bartoli, and Serena Sinigaglia. He has worked with, among others, Paolo Magelli, Lina Wertmuller, Cristina Pezzoli, Angelo Savelli, Federico Tiezzi, Stefano Massini, Luciano Melchionna, Guido de Monticelli and Massimo Castri. He worked in cinema and television with Mario Martone, Salvatore Samperi and Antonello Grimaldi.

Elisa Cecilia Langone was born in Pisa. She graduated in 2008 from the "Scuola d’Arte Drammatica Paolo Grassi" in Milan, working with important artists such as Kuniaki Ida, Tatiana Olear, Massimo Navone, Maurizio Schmidt, Maria Consagra, Ambra D’Amico and Marco Plini, who directed her in the role of Electra in "Il lutto si addice a Elettra" (Mourning Becomes Electra) (2008) by Eugene O’Neill and in the role of Imma in Francesca Angeli’s "Benvenuti in California" (Welcome to California) (2009) at the Teatro Sociale of Brescia. From 1997 to 2001, she enrolled in "Fare Teatro" (Doing Theatre) at Pisa’s Teatro Verdi, working with Lorenzo Mucci, Luca Biagiotti and Cristina Lazzari. From October 28 to December 13 of 2008, she participated in "Il Laboratorio di Prato" (The Prato Laboratory) led by Federico Tiezzi at the Teatro Metastasio in Prato. In the role of Filippo, she took part in the play Happy Family by Alessandro Genovesi at the Teatro dell’Elfo in Milan (2007), reprising the role again on tour in 2009 and 2010. Since 2010, she is a part of Teatro Metastasio’s resident company, and along with her active theatrical activity, she also appears in fiction, commercials and other audiovisual projects.

Born in 1982 in Florence, he was put up for adoption as a baby and raised in a multiracial, multicultural family, with two parents who have had a significant influence on his life, supporting and nourishing his early artistic curiosity. After high school studies, at 19 years old, he participated in an audition for Graziella Pezzani and Giuliano Basilicò’s company, and for one year worked on the development of an experimental Oedipus Rex. He was then called by Paolo Magelli to work in Animali nella Nebbia, a play which experienced the wandering life of being "on tour". In the same year he worked on Hit Science, a children’s show produced by RaiTre. He worked in various musical shows on the web, while his theatrical activity is divided between Naples, where he worked with Nello Mascia, Armando Pugliese, and other directors, and Tuscany. Important for his artistic growth was an encounter with Franco Rossi, theatre director, dramaturge, and musician, for whom he became a sort of "pet" actor, and with whom he will go on to develop numerous projects, including prose plays and theatrical installations. In 2011, he directed his first production, God’s Sax, written by Stefano Benni. His approach to acting is entirely instinctual.