For a star

On Sunday away from my library, I gave myself an afternoon at the theater and I attended the last rerun of: ” Per una stella ” staged at the Elfo .
I decided to write about it because this show really excited me and I found the two actors Marta Comerio and Tommaso Banfi simply fantastic!

Premise: I don’t have the skills to talk about theater, but as a spectator and thirsty for stories I think I can write what I felt and what left me once finished. Just yesterday, as soon as I left the room, I wrote how much I liked it and that once the emotions had settled for one night, I would have talked about it on the blog.

Marta and Tommaso are customers and friends of the box and when they brought me the promotional material of the show I immediately hoped to be able to carve out one day to go and see them. Every time I have seen their work I liked it and I didn’t want to miss it!

I think I’ve lost count of all the times I’ve written how important it is to network and on this occasion we tried too.
Attending the neighborhood bookstores has many advantages, among others, including that of being able to attend many theatrical performances at a discounted price.
With Marta and Tommaso we decided to use a password when booking, guess what we chose instead of the very famous: open sesame ?
Obviously: box.
Among the readers who went to see For a star before me is her, Sarah, my friend flower dealer who sent me a message after the show.

“Direction to scream, excellent actors … The Elf is always a certainty.
Anyway, tell Marta that we would have attended the show even at full price because she was wonderful! “

But let’s get to us. I take my seat, number 13 in row E.
The show is based on a true story. We have to go back 100 years, during the First World War, specifically we are in May 1915 along the border, a border that does not exist, a border – to quote the show – that was not created by God, like the sun and the trees, but it’s the man-made boundary.

The key to all wars I believe lies right here: Man-made border.

The scenography is made up of wooden boards and cubes. Two flags that symbolize the Austro-Hungarian Empire on one side and the Kingdom of Italy on the other.
There are two stories that are told to us on both sides of the border.

We have Rosa Anna waiting for her father who has left at the front, waving his arms every time she sees the man carrying the letters. No news from my dad? Nichts f ü r heute? Wir müssen warten! Vielleicht Morgen …
A little girl who asks her mom for a date, wants to know the exact day her father will return, because if you don’t know the exact date, how can you wait for that day to arrive? Will he come back tomorrow? Will it be there for my birthday?

On the other side of the border we have Pietro, a musician, who enlists as his brother who fell in Val di Ledro did. Time passes, Peter’s eyes see the torment of the front up close, Peter’s body feels the mud, becomes mud himself and wonders what and for whom he is fighting. What war can we call ours? A fellow soldier has become a father and is waiting to be able to kiss his son, a kiss that will cost him dearly. Pietro who feels out of place, who doesn’t want to detonate any shots from his rifle, Pietro who has to bow to the system, Pietro who will have to pull the trigger.

© photo by Roberto Finizio

The two voices alternate, chase each other, merge in what seemed to me a real dance, perhaps also due to the way in which the two actors used the boards and cubes present on stage. Axes and cubes that have become, among the many transformations, the trench of one and the house of the other.

What did I think after the show was over?
As long as we want to delimit and take possession of the borders that in reality do not exist, there can be no winners, but only losers.

If you missed them in Milan, let me know that they will be staged in Rome at the India theater from 1 to 3 March 2016 .

For a star: