
On Friday 31 July the performance will be broadcast live at mare culturale urbano at n. 15, Via Gabetti
A passing of the baton between two women of stage and comedy: Lella Costa accepts the invitation from Franca Valeri to perform one of her most famous works, La vedova Socrate.
Freely inspired by Dürrenmatt’s The Death of Socrates, the monologue is set in the antiques shop run by Santippe, the wife of the philosopher, described by historians as one of the most insupportable women in ancient history.
“I was fascinated by the idea of disproving this myth that Santippe was nothing more than a kind of shrew - explains the writer -. I portray her as a wife, just like many others, with a daily life full of ups and downs. A strong and intelligent woman who also sees her husband’s many defects”.
Santippe is finally given the opportunity to speak about her marriage and what she had to put up with thanks to Socrates’s friends, from Aristophanes to Alcibiades, a bunch of good-for-nothings, above all Plato, Socrate’s favourite disciple who stole all his ideas, presenting them, albeit faithfully, in his Dialogues. Santippe can’t get over this, reducing him to an exploiter of the words of others and even considering asking him for royalties...
What emerges is an ironic and sharp-witted story, with Santippe deciding to write a dialogue herself, one that focuses on women. There is no need to study the true nature of one’s husband, one needs only to accept him as he is, both alive and dead. Besides, “the death of a husband is a thing of such suffering that no woman would go without”.
Chiostro Nina Vinchi
from 31 July to 2 August 2020, 9.30 p.m.
La vedova Socrate
by Franca Valeri
freely inspired by "The Death of Socrates" by Friedrich Dürrenmatt
with the kind permission of Diogenes Verlag AG
directed by Stefania Bonfadelli
with Lella Costa
a Centro Teatrale Bresciano production
project by Mismaonda
In collaboration with Fondazione Cariplo
The shows form part of the "Aria di Cultura" programme organised by the Municipality of Milan
In the event of bad weather, performances will take place at the Teatro Grassi.
Assigned seats will be indicated on the seats in the auditorium.