Institute of the Arts Barcelona

The following study wants to show how three important Italian intellectuals, between XIX and XX centuries, are interesting in ghost stories and describe ghost legends of Naples, city where the three authors live: Matilde Serao, and her Leggende Napoletane (1881); Roberto Bracco, with his Spiritismo di Baby (1886), a positivist divertissement, where Bracco ridicules the esoteric fashion diffused in Naples and in Italy; Benedetto Croce and his Storie e leggende napoletane, one of the last chapters particularly, dedicated to “ghost houses” in Naples. The study wants to put in relationship the works of these three authors, to delineate the characteristics of ghost stories in Naples between the two centuries.

The following contribution aims to analyse two adaptations of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s
"Teorema", written and directed by, respectively, Grzegorz Jarzyna and Mikołaj Mikołajczyk. In the
first, "T.E.O.R.E.M.A.T.", Jarzyna works both on Pasolini’s novel and film, creating a performance
composed of the distorted use of the voice, silent dialogues and proximity games, producing a
highly conceptual effect. In his "Wszystko jutro, czyli lalki wybawione", Mikołajczyk, on the other hand,
recreates Pasolini’s story as a choreographed drama, which examines the dilemmas posed by the
Italian author.

The Italian artist Carmelo Bene and the British director Celestino Coronado have
worked intensively on Shakespeare and in particular on Hamlet, but giving opposing
interpretations of the work. In his Un Amleto di Meno (1973), Carmelo Bene, taking as starting
point Jules Laforgue’s Hamlet, ou les suites de le pitié filiale (1877), redefines the drama of
Hamlet,refusing to see him as a man who wants to escape his destiny. In Bene’s adaptation,
Hamlet disappears from the stage. By contrast, Celestino Coronado, in his film version in 1976,
underlines the presence of Hamlet on the screen, casting twins, Anthony and David Meyer, in the
role and working on the idea of a Shakespearean Doppelgänger. This paper aims to analyze the
specific elements of the two adaptations of Hamlet, in which there is the common presence of the
Lacanian psychoanalysis.

Recensione di Armando Rotondi Bernardina Moriconi, Metamorfosi di un arcidiavolo. Il personaggio di Belfagor da Machiavelli a oggi 57 Bernardina Moriconi, Metamorfosi di un arcidiavolo. Il personaggio di Belfagor da Machiavelli a oggi, Napoli, Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 2013, ISBN: 9788849526158. Belfagor rappresenta sicuramente una delle figure artistiche più interessanti provenienti dal mondo della religione (e in particolare della demonologia), figura arcaica che si è trasformata in personaggio letterario di grande successo, ancor più di altri suoi colleghi diavoli, quali Belzebù, Satana, e secondo solo al Lucifero e al Mefistofele dei vari Milton, Goethe o Marlowe. Nel suo volume Metamorfosi di un arcidiavolo. Il personaggio di Belfagor da Machiavelli a oggi, Bernardina Moriconi segue questa evoluzione di Belfagor dalla prima trasformazione in personaggio letterario nella famosa novella di Niccolò Machiavelli, per giungere sino ai giorni nostri, attraversando di volta in volta la narrativa, la poesia, il teatro e il cinema. Il volume, di agile lettura, si basa su un numero davvero considerevole di riferimenti bibliografici, che denotano una grande ricerca iniziale che è, in primo luogo, una ricerca comparatistica e interdisciplinare. L'autrice muove infatti da considerazioni di carattere storicoantropologico, con riferimenti opportuni alla demonologia e alla storia delle religioni (cita, ad esempio, il Dictionary of Demonology di Collin De Plancy, che organizza le gerarchie infernali), per definire le origini e i caratteri primordiali di Belfagor, demone antico, probabilmente caldeo, e poi arcidiavolo assimilato dalla religione cristiana. Si sofferma quindi sulla novella, l'unica conosciuta, di Machiavelli, Belfagor arcidiavolo, nota anche come La favola di Belfagor Arcidiavolo o Il demonio che prese moglie, scritta tra il 1518 e il 1527.

In the last 20 years, during the so-called period of the berlusconismo, new form of politics and new reality of the MoVimento5Stelle, created by Beppe Grillo and Gianroberto Casaleggio, have risen in Italy, reaching an essential role after the 2013 election.
Aim of this paper is to show how, with Beppe Grillo’s activities, the teatro della politica has began a "teatro della crisi" both in the use of a theatrical language and contemporary dramatic expression, renewing completely the idea of the political performance and collective ritual. In this way, the MoVimento5Stelle and Beppe Grillo in particular do not use only new technologies (such as blogs), but also forms of direct communication.

The crisis of the first 10 years of "berlusconismo", has already analyzed, from a theatrical perspective,  by Nobel laureate Dario Fo, in his portrait of Silvio Berlusconi titled "L’anomalo bicefalo" (2004).

Dario Fo has became one of the noble and intellectual fathers of the MoVimento5Stelle, having being invited regularly to the events of the movement. Beppe Grillo, entertainer and then political activist, has theatralized and dramatized the crisis with forms of one-man show events and others similar to theatre happenings, such as the V-Day, where the performance component was essential.

The dialectic between Dario Fo and the two founders of the movements, Beppe Grillo and Gianroberto Casaleggio, is evident in the book "Il Grillo canta sempre al tramonto". Edited by Fo, the book is not a real dialogue among the authors, but, after a deep analysis, it is constructed as a
theatrical play where the chapters are more similar to acts, the sub-chapters to scenes; there are also “stage directions” and theatre is more than a simple metaphor for the Italian crisis.

The aim of the contribution is to provide a thorough "geography" of the translations and adaptations
of Eduardo De Filippo’s works worldwide. Without being a mere list of titles and versions realized for international stages, the contribution will analyze, through specific examples, the theme of "Eduardo in the world", moving not from geographical areas, but from key themes, focusing attention to the problems of translation/adaptation (particularly of Eduardo’s language), purpose of the translations (texts translated for the stage vs. texts translated for the publication abroad) and reception of the works. The paper will also investigate the reasons that led to a diffusion of the De Filippo’s plays first of all in certain geographical areas (Eastern Europe and South America) and then in others, such as, for example, the English-speaking world.