After its summer debut at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, the first Italian production of the hilarious comedy Ciarlatani by Spanish playwright and director Pablo Remón, starring Silvio Orlando and Blue Yoshimi, is on tour.
Anna Velasco (Blu Toshimi) is a young actress whose career is stalling. She works for small productions and TV soap operas while waiting for the casting that will change her life, she teach Pilates to make ends meet, and uses her work to have a semblance of relationship with her late father, 1980s cult director Eusebio Velasco. Cut.
Diego Fontana (Silvio Orlando) is a successful film director. He understands very well how digital distribution works, and he enjoys his golden years working on an international series with a stellar cast. A lightning – both actual and metaphorical – will put all of this to a grinding halt, and make Diego think long and hard about that integrity that used to be so important to his younger self. Diego wasn’t one to resort to compromising, just like his mentor – Eusebio Velasco. The two stories are shown in parallel and feed one another. They mirror the same themes and follow two deadlocked characters and a stone guest.
Show Ciarlatani debuted at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto and is currently touring Italy, on stage at the Toniolo Theatre in Mestre from 22 to 25 February. This hilarious piece of comedy by Spanish director and playwright Pablo Remón (originally Los farsantes) has been adapted by Davide Carnevali.
Unlike most comedies, Ciarlatani mixes long monologues with short witticisms, features constant enters and exits, and more generally, builds upon socio-cultural references that are essential to quickly decipher each line. Its fast pace might remind of sit-coms, and develops along a string of cadres playing with the roles of directors, actors, playwrights. What we are looking at is not only a satire of show business, but of each of us, in our being constantly exposed on different media, in what Guy Debord called The Society of the Spectacle. What we gather from this show is a reflection on success, on failure, and on the roles we play as well as on ‘greatness’ perceived as essential, while in fact, we should all accept the world we deserve. Two hours pass in the wink of an eye, also thanks to the excellent cast.
