The Italian Job on the U.S.A.

In this essay, Laura Mariani outlines the defining qualities of the actor as interpreter today and explores the identity of Italian theatre through the interplay between tradition and experimentation, craft and art, as embodied in the figure of Elio De Capitani and the creative crucible of the Teatro dell’Elfo.

Mariani examines the evolution of De Capitani’s directorial approach, rooted in a deep belief in the actor, by analyzing some of his landmark performances: from Mr Berlusconi in Moretti’s film The Caiman to Willy Loman in Miller’s Death of a Salesman, via such towering embodiments of power as Roy Cohn, the anti-communist lawyer personifying evil in Kushner’s Angels in America, and President Nixon, cornered by a tv host into admitting involvement in the Watergate scandal in Morgan’s Frost/Nixon, to end with Captain Ahab’s human and at once superhuman madness in a new chapter devoted to the Elfo’s 2022 production of Orson Welles’ Moby Dick – Rehearsed.

Interweaving theoretical insight with engaging dialogue throughout, this volume is also enriched by an epilogue in which Elio De Capitani delves into the Teatro dell’Elfo’s work on America, as reflected in three plays produced by the Elfo in the 2023-26 seasons.