Carlo Cecchi at the Teatro Massimo of Cagliari: who is the actor playing Enrico IV

Since his last performance fifteen years ago, Carlo Cecchi will be once again presenting his art, Enrico IV, in the Teatro Massimo of Cagliari from the 6th to the 10th of March 2019, with Angelica Ippolito, Gigio Morra, Roberto Trifirò, Federico Brugnone, Davide Giordano, Dario Iubatti, Matteo Lai, Chiara Mancuso and Remo Stella.

Not only he will be acting, Cecchi will also be directing the marvelously interesting theatrical production by Luigi Pirandello, a three act play with a narrative about human madness and the difficult relation between personality and character, deception and reality, dramatic themes for the play-writer from Agrigento.

Just as a sailer is enchanted by the mysterious mermaid’s song, each one of us will be enchanted by the return of one of the most important figures in Italian theatre and the revolutionary play by Pirandello at Teatro Massimo in Cagliari. Cecchi’s version of Enrico IV is different from tradition, the long lines of the Great Actor are reduced to leave space for the other characters who would otherwise not show up as much because of the overpowering presence of the protagonist whose madness is at center of the show, a complicated plot of Theatre, theatre within the theatre and the theatre of the theatre.

Enrico IV at Teatro Massimo di Cagliari: show dates, time-tables and where to find tickets

Enrico IV by Carlo Cecchi will be in Teatro Massimo of Cagliari from Wednesday 6th March to Sunday 10th of March at the following turns:

Turn A: Wednesday 6th March 2019, h 20,30 Turn P: Thursday 7th March 2019, h 16,30 Turn B: Thursday 7th March 2019, h 20,30 Turn C: Friday 8th March 2019, h 20,30 Turn D: Saturday 9th March 2019, h 20,30 Turn E: Sunday 10th March 2019, h 19,00

• tickets can be purchased at the ticket desks in the Centro Diffusione Attività Culturali (D.A.C.) open only on the days of the shows, from Wednesday to Saturday from 17:00 to 20:30 and on Sunday from 17:00 to 19:00. The Ce.D.A.C is in via Goffedro Mameli 153, for ulterior information call +39 345 48 94 565, send an email to biglietteria@cedacsardegna.it or visit the webpage www.cedacsardegna.it.
• Tickets can also be purchased online at vivaticket.it and the price will vary according to the position of the seat:
• First sector: whole € 35 , reduced € 27
• second sector: whole € 30 euro, reduced € 22
• Gallery: one price € 15
• Afternoon tickets: whole € 16, reduced € 12

The Teatro Massimo of Cagliari since after the war to today

Cagliari is home to art, nature and ingenuity, the theatre Massimo di Cagliari completes this magnificent cultural environment to make this city truly memorable, the structure was opened again after 27 years of closure.

The theatre in Viale Trento in Cagliari, was built at the end of the war, just like a flower blooming from the ashes and symbolizing how beauty wins against darkness.

The years during the Second World War didn’t spare anybody or anything, even Cagliari suffered the loss of two magnificent theaters, the politeama Regina Margherita in a fire, and the Teatro Civico di Castello with the terrible bombings in 1943.

It was the Merello family from Cagliari to have the initiative of making a cinema-theatre. The project of the future Teatro Massimo was carried out by two young architects from Cagliari: Oddone Devoto and Emilio Stefano Garau, and the theatre company Ivo Mazzei was also involved. The 3.000 m², plus a hall holding 1.500 seats and a stage of 250 m², was opened in 1947 and hosted great names of classical music including Maria Callas, Beniamino Gigli and Tito Schipa, also great pillars in Italian theatre like Vittorio Gassman, Eduardo De Filippo, Giorgio Streheler and Tino Buazzelli and the first famous colossals including Ben Hur and I Dieci Comandamenti.

Teatro Massimo opened its doors to Sardinia and the rest of Italy in 1960, it gave Sardinia its first live television transmission when it hosted the last night of Canzonissima. 

But all stories, even the best ones, have troubled moments and those of the Teatro Massimo were in the 70s, a crisis concerning the cinematographic sector, for the Merello family the economy collapsed and they thought of destroying the theatre and building housing instead, luckily the city hall’s administration intervened and with an exchange of areas, the theatre managed to stay active until 1982 when a fire closed it down for good.

After 27 years, on the 11th of February, the Teatro Massimo has been reborn from its ashes like a Phoenix and belongs once more to Cagliari, the Sardinians and everyone believing in culture and Italian theatre.

Enrico IV in Cagliari: the play by Luigi Pirandello at Teatro Massimo

The theatre tells tales of human virtues and defects of human lives, it catches your soul and dangles it in front of your eyes, showing you the various shades of reality and fiction, mask or face, drama or comedy: theatre is a man talking to others and showing what we are and what we are not, what we aspire to be and what we give up.

The identity analysis and the faceted complexity of ourselves are the key points on which the entire show is based. The writer and Italian poet Luigi Pirandello uses the complicated relation between person and character by examining madness, firstly recited then real, in his show Enrico IV.

The three-act-play was purposely written for Ruggero Ruggieri, a famous actor at the time, in 1921 and tells the story of a 20th century noble man whom takes part in a horse ride and plays the part of Enrico IV of Franconia.

Matilde Spina, admired by the protagonist, also takes part in the game and so does Belcredi, amorous rival of the noble man who defeats the protagonist whom falls to the ground, bangs his head and begins to believe he is truly Enrico IV. The madness of the man is not taken seriously by those around him, but after 12 years the noble man is cured and realizes his fall was no accident, it was provoked by Belcredi, also in love with Matilde, who after the accident managed to get the girl and have a family. The reality and loss of the woman he loves make the man pretend to be mad, so not to face the pain, he lives this way for 20 years until Matilde, Belcredi and their daughter Frida decide to visit him with a psychiatrist fascinated by Enrico IV mental illness.

To try and cure him, the doctor suggests they recreate the exact scene of 20 years before, including the fall from his saddle, but this time Frida will be in the place her mother was at the time, and when Enrico IV finds himself before the young lady, so alike her mother, he hugs her, this irritates Belcredi immensely and tries to separate the emperor from his daughter but instead receives a deadly injure from the noble man. There is no way to avoid the consequences of this fatal action, only a court trial and prison. In order to escape reality there remains just one possibility: pretend to be mad for the rest of his life.

The Enrico IV show by Carlo Cecchi at the Teatro Massimo of Cagliari begins here, a piece in which the psychological dimension and social critique make this tragedy a modern tale, capable of touching present sensibilities.

An extra reason for not letting the occasion of seeing an Italian theatre star slip by.

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