plawright:
Mario Fratti
director: Dan Friedman
set design: Floyd Gumble
costume design: Stephanie Rafferty
actors: Dave DeChristopher, Mika Duncan, Jennifer Herzog, Zenobia Shroff,
Ross Stoner and Caroline Strong
performance
schedule:
February 7-24, 2002
Thursday - Sunday 8:00pm
Sunday Matinee 2:30pm
First Floor
Theatre
$15.00
"Erotic Adventures
in Venice" by Mario Fratti is an ironic, sarcastic satire about the colossal
scandal in Italian politics during 1991-92. La MaMa E.T.C. will present the
play's American premiere February 7 to 24 in its First Floor Theater, directed
by Dan Friedman. At the end of World War
II, the Christian Democrats, with the assistance of the Vatican, won the elections
in Italy. They ruled there uninterruptedly until 1991; in fact, by playing
musical chairs, they stayed in power and dominated Italian politics for almost
fifty years. In 1991 the honest, severe Judge Di Pietro uncovered the national
scandal now known as Tangentopoli, or Bribestown, whose widespread and brazen
corruption led to the indictment of many politicians. These gentlemen ran away
and hid themselves in the most disparate locations, even in family mausoleums
in well-known cemeteries. In "Erotic Adventures
in Venice," Mario Fratti takes on one of these cases. The play is a scathing
comedy about the politicians who hid in the well-known Venetian cemetery of
San Michele, where the tombs of Diaghilev, Stravinsky and Ezra Pound are nestled
among those of other famous people. The posh surroundings were a perfect place
to start an amusing sex business for tourists. In Fratti's play, the cemetery--a
beautiful, serene island--becomes a tragicomic Italian Bribestown, filled with
music, ghosts and bizarre erotic adventures. In particular, it is home to Senator
"M" who, although deposed, still relishes the power and influence
he can wield with his name and title. Exultant with his money and his women,
he can convince anybody, with charming mendacity, how the trickle-down effect
of "bustarelle" (bribes) is the best thing for the country. Mario
Fratti is a playwright and drama critic who was born in Italy but has lived
in New York since 1963. His plays characteristically take on realistic subjects
with a touch of Latin irony. His remarkable body of work includes such noteworthy
plays as "The
Cage," "The Victim," "Suicide," "Return,"
"Che Guevara," "Eleonora Duse, "Seducers" and "Refrigerators."
His previous La MaMa productions include "Refrigerators," "Madame
Senator" and "Passionate Women." Fratti's plays have been published
and performed in 19 languages in over 600 theaters. Broadway audiences know
him as author of the adaptation of Fellini's film "8½" that
became "Nine," a now-legendary Broadway musical that grabbed five
Tony awards and eight Drama Desk awards. Director Dan Friedman is the
dramaturg at the Castillo Theatre. In that capacity, he speaks and publishes
frequently on the work of Castillo and postmodern political theatre. His articles
have appeared in Modern Drama, Theatre InSight and Theatre Symposium and he
is editor of "Still on the Corner and Other Postmodern Political Plays"
by Fred Newman. His earlier scholarly work in theatre history includes co-editing,
with Bruce McConachie, "Theatre for Working Class Audiences in the United
States, 1830-1980." A founding member of the Castillo Theatre, Dan previously
worked with several American political theaters, including the New York Street
Theatre Caravan, Madison Theatre-in-the-Park, and Workers Stage. Dan is also
a director and the author or co-author of 14 plays. He is currently directing
"Confused Circuses' by David Alarcon, which will open at the Nuyorican
Poet's Cafe on March 28.
