Magnifica Presenza

Vincenzo Bocciarelli, Siena Theater  Director,opens the season  with Magnifica presenza by Ferzan Özpetek, a theatrical experience of powerful emotional impact. Ferzan Özpetek continues the journey he began with Mine vaganti with a new stage adaptation of one of his film successes, Magnifica presenza, demonstrating once again his remarkable ability to transport his stories from the cinema to the stage with mastery and delicacy. Captivating a Sienese audience, enthusiastic and proud of their theater, is the multifaceted Erik Tonelli, who plays the young pastry chef Pietro, a charming, bungling homosexual in search of his own human and artistic identity.
In a crescendo of human and artistic endeavors, the young man unleashes daring courage in confronting his own truth and that of the noisy ghost guests who live in his new Roman house in Monteverde Vecchio. His coexistence with the comedic spirits of the Apollonia company, collaborators with the resistance during the Fascist period, decimated by betrayal, is daring. Among these, the captivating and poetic figure of Serra Ylmaz stands out, considered by many to be the muse of the master Ozpetek. Appearing in his most famous works, from Fate ignoranti, La finestra contro, to Saturno contro the talented international actress of Turkish origins brings an exotic, Middle Eastern touch to the fairy actress, the talking cricket of poor Pietro. A marvelous narrative between the young man and the entities, steeped in reality and fiction, with leaps in time and space that involve the effervescent cousin Tosca d'Aquino, always true to herself, who elicits laughter at will. Magnifica Presenza is a sophisticated, cheerful yet poignant dialogue that shows how art can keep memories and dreams alive: those of the young Catanian Pietro, to become an accomplished actor, proud of his homosexuality, and those of theater people who continue to relive fiction and tragedy on an eternal stage.