4>17 May 2009
Naples Theatre Festival Italy / Mercadante Permanent Theatre of Naples/ Eliseo Theatre
CHIE -CHAN AND ME
by Giorgio Amitrano
drawn on Banana Yoshimoto's novel
commission of Naples Theatre Festival Italy
with Caterina Carpio, Alessia Giangiuliani, Guglielmo Menconi, Francesca Porrini, Cinzia Spanò
director Carmelo Rifici
scenes Guido Buganza
lights Jean-Luc Chanonat
stylist Simone Valsecchi
with the sponsorship of Fondazione Italy Japan
After the debut at San Ferdinando Theatre, during the first edition of Naples Theatre Festival Italy, the play Chin Chan and me returns to the foyer of Mercadante.
The play stages the last Banana Yoshimoto's novel, Japanese writer who is very appreciated by young people thanks to the simply style she uses to deal with loneliness and the growing pains.
The theatre adaptation by Giorgio Amitrano, images the "interior monologue of the protagonist, Kaori, which flows through voices, faces, the bodies of 4 actresses. It seems to be a game which sometimes stages traditional scenes, in which the text is characterized by cross talk between recognizable characters". In the direction notes, Carmelo Rifici defines the play an "enigmatic text".
"Through the narration of an happening, a slight crash happened to the protagonist's cousin, the
Japanese writer develops a discourse on the theme of the desire, or better still, on the conflict between material desires and soul's desire.
It's a text developed like a spider web, a labyrinth in the mind in which the thoughts increase more and more. For this reason, the director has decided giving many voices to the protagonist, to allow her to speak to herself. The realization of the desire , both material and spiritual, happens during the dream activity; the direction uses this moment to create a dream atmosphere. The events, thoughts and contradictions flow in a chaotic way, without a realistic logic but they are justified by the representation which goes on like a dream, a dream within a dream. Sometimes it is ephemeral like the dream of a luxury life, other times it is worryingly and reflect the human fears: fear of loneliness, disease, death".