The Corner Store has been an art-exhibit space and has hosted musical
performances for a while but is now adding theater to their agenda. During
September they are hosting a "Theater Fest" of solo-shows and staged
readings. The first one was held Wednesday night. The audience enters from
the small patio on 9th street between the main building and the garage,
passes through the town-house's kitchen and what has been a dining room
which, for these occasions can be provided with a few munchies and even
some wine (libation donations appreciated). The performance space is the
front room, the former Couzzo grocery store facing onto South Carolina
Avenue just two blocks from the Eastern Market Metro station. With a stage
platform set up against the long wall, there is space for 55 or 60 on
chairs and benches on three sides. The performance space easily
accommodates three or four for a staged reading.
Storyline: The final hours before Benito Mussolini's mistress escapes
Italy in 1938 are tense ones for her and for Il Duce. Will she, a Jewess,
despite her conversion to Catholicism, succeed in getting out
of the country before the new racial laws take effect? Will he succeed in
getting her to reveal the location of the love letters he wrote to her at
the height of their affair which may include comments he wouldn't want
made public?
The play is by Anthony Ernest Gallo, a
Capitol Hill resident whose works tend toward historical subjects. He's
the author of Lincoln and God, The Agony of David, Solomon, and his play
about the company town for steel workers in Pennsylvania, Vandergrift!,
will have a staged reading at the National Press Club this Friday,
September 7. He says the focus of his works is on "the Judeo-Christian
experience" and Margherita certainly touches on topics on point for such
concentration. Margherita Sarfatti was a noted Italian journalist and art
critic who was a force in the fascist movement during her affair with
Mussolini, but who fled Italy when Mussolini's government adopted
discriminatory racial
laws, and remained out of the country until after the end of
World War II and the death of her former lover.
Marian Licha handles
the title role with a sense of pained dignity and pride which works well,
creating a character that could have captivated the self-centered
Mussolini and retained a claim on his affections long after their breakup.
Paul McLane gives Mussolini a strength and intensity, but the focus here,
as the title implies, is really on Licha's Margherita, and she has the one
and only really complex personality in the piece. Dave Coyne is efficient in the supporting roles
including a stranger who shows up
at her door who may be a policeman, may be a driver or may be worse.
Gallo peppers his
script with references to the history of the time which require some
familiarity with his subject in order to get the most from the play. In
production, the program could include notes from the author, director or
dramaturg which could provide much of the information that would make the
experience of the play more rewarding.
Written by Anthony Ernest Gallo. Directed
by Jessica Lefkow. Cast: Dave Coyne. Marian Licha, Paul McLane. |
