's "Horace" by Heiner Müller staged in San Pietro in Cariano (VR) Original title: Der Horatier .
First performance: Berlin, Schiller Theater, I March 1973.
Sunday, October 17th, I attended the monologue 's Orazio text written in the seventies by Heiner Müller, one of the greatest playwrights of the twentieth century, along with Brecht, Pirandello, Beckett and Ionesco.
L ' Orazio is a topical and very disturbing, waiting for Leonardo Franceschetti and Maurizio Zanolli replicate this wonderful monologue, I felt compelled to write a short commentary article, hoping to entice as many people, especially young people, go see it.
And why not take advantage of the availability of these eclectic artists from Verona to propose the monologue in high school in Verona? It could be a good starting point for a reflection on the world we live in, a little changed from forty years ago, in terms of ethical confusion.
The Horatio
"Every time we utter a word,
unaware, we create a world."
Gilberto Fulgenzi
Cosmogonies lazy, and other Fiatlux (1971)
Entering, almost in darkness, in an attic and take a seat on the chairs while the show has already begun.
In the background, Danity Kane sings My enemy.
A man is kneeling in front of a dozen newspapers, all bought the same day, and examines them, one by one without realizing that content is behind all those words put together according to a criterion elusive, deliberately incomprehensible.
is the story of today. The fragmented information, depistante, centrifuged and passed through a blender, no more love in the use of words, abandoned the facile cliches, to search for the slogan.
sit on the chairs and watch the man, bewildered, hung up the pages, taken at random from the pile, on an invisible wall.
Words have lost their way, you can not decipher what the message they are conveying.
The words have been killed.
The man feels uncontrollable rage and takes away from the wall all the information false, misleading, he had collected with so much patience. Patience
that now only seems naive.
This gesture opens a glimpse into the past.
on the chair you are more relaxed, because something has broken the barrier between actor and audience, between said and unsaid, but also between past and present.
It is precisely at this moment that the past breaks, taking up with the fury of Heiner Müller, the ironic story of the Orazi and Curiazi told by Livy.
not identical, indeed, very different, with a series of unforeseen implications, affecting not for the freedom taken with respect to the guide of the famous chronicler, as for the strong desire to say more ....
The Horace alone.
There are two brothers.
is the only one to fight for Rome.
And he is entrusted with all the drama and also the ethical dilemma of which even he realizes. Will be others to live it. He moves in a blind belief in a truth not discussed: Roma comes first.
I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have no other God above me.
Orazio see Rome no more nor less than that. As a value which led to be believed, dedication, if necessary also my life.
be seated on the chairs and see a man who paints on panels of the story of Horace, his inescapable destiny that compels him to be both a hero and a murderess, and hear the same story, but acting, he says words, gate have to focus all with two different senses are combined in stereo.
auditory and visual perception melt, become one.
cinema, especially when engaging special effects, it can not produce a similar upheaval. But
'Orazio proposed by Leonardo Franceschetti, Maurizio and Alessandro Zanolli Bonesini yes. Why is able to show an awareness that he lives, vibrates, has something to say, music, drawing, light and shadow.
be sitting on those chairs is to become part of a show that is real life, which overwhelms and enchants.
Horatio is the hero that the defeat of the enemies of Rome, the Curiazi of Alba. But one of them, what he has killed, was engaged to the sister of Horace. And he, returning winner does not bear her tears. So pierces his chest with the same sword with which he had brought death to his beloved.
now goes to him, you love more than Rome. And this happens to every Roman woman who cries the enemy.
Hence the dilemma, made thin by Müller Language: Horace is a hero or a murderess?
If you are a hero, we should ask him the laurel on his head, if it is a murderess, executed. But Horace can be two men at the same time? And here
triggered an inability to grasp the nuances, to read good and evil as opposites that are always present together. The people want to know if Horace is a hero or a murderess. Demands it. Do not accept compromises. The compromise, as we now know are the tricks of the politicians and lawyers, but the soul of innocent people - in its pure ignorance - they can not conceive.
be sitting on those chairs means Mauritius Zanolli question on the drawings, with flashes of color that play to confuse good and evil. It means listening to the words of Leonardo Franceschetti, which give strength and make it more relevant than ever the message expressed by the Müller. A text never complained, though written in the seventies, in East Germany did not know, if not understood, the meaning of the word "freedom". It means reflecting on the supposed freedom that today we delude ourselves to live.
Yes, because while you are sitting on those chairs, a plot that involved nails and a visual impact that you impossible to divert for a moment's attention, there is rising demand, which you can not shape it immediately.
That question will reappear after perhaps ten minutes, an hour after or within a few days. And then discover that it was not just a question. It was a question about the meaning of life in a profound way, without pretense, and that is why we took so to appear.
Today everything goes to avoid confrontation with ourselves. The philosophy has ceased to be a thorn in the soul when they are born TV quiz, which replace the question of Müller - Horace was a hero or a murderess? - Questions about who won the San Remo Festival in '79 or what is the second Christian name of the Navy.
If this is now, to do the lion's share with respect to the ethical dilemmas of life, then do not be surprised, we sat on those chairs, feeling shaken public opinion in the process of our home.
not unlike dall'Orazio, left at the mercy of popular opinion, confusion reigns.
is a murderess?
is a winner?
were right?
made a mistake?
Resolving ethical dilemmas, from time immemorial, is a difficult undertaking. Not impossible, in my opinion.
There are values \u200b\u200bthat, in some way behind the way we live and which become recognizable as worthy to be preserved, protected, promoted and protected.
But they are not absolute values.
Our values \u200b\u200bdepend on the items to be given more than we suspect. I think back to illuminant
essay by Aldo Giorgio Gargani Wittgenstein. Music, speech, gesture , where a phrase leaps to the eye throbbing of truth: "We are our language."
Our whole life, all of our knowledge, even our values, would be impossible without language, which becomes both the limits of knowledge and the means, the only way to implement it. In other words, we wear a "language skin" from which it is almost impossible to escape.
And our values \u200b\u200bare part of it.
This awareness should lead to a mature reflection, which enables us to understand the game that we have been registered, perhaps against our will, and to grasp the subtle differences that separate the recreational aspect of his human sensitivity.
identification with the feelings of others, understand that others are not just figures, appeared in a video-game , but human beings like us have fears, doubts, moments of anger and despair, may be the most complete answer to the dilemma by Müller: Who are you? Who are you, the person in front of me?
dell'Orazio If the color takes on tragic dilemma: he is a hero or a murderess? And the answer is sought in sterile belief, supported by nothing.
But you can find the right label to categorize a person?
Horace may be convicted or acquitted according to the values \u200b\u200bof the period in which they live. In ancient Rome could be a hero and a fratricide. And let's dilemma. Today, go find another solution ... but insinuates Müller, subtle sarcasm and end: The hero dies when his ethical sense falters.
When Horatio kills his sister, has crossed the threshold between good and evil, he placed each claim to be a hero.
But Let's face it, Muller had painted the lack of ethics of Horace before. When facing the enemy defeated, he refuses to accept his request for mercy. He does not care nor the man who kills or sister. Roma won at all in his heart.
The ethical problem and the language seems to be different. But only if they are not addressed ensemble, grasping the implications of one with another. It is a deliberately distorted use of words that we are led to believe that the world is in a certain way, if we are not always savvy enough not to fall into it.
Orazio is a little tricky. Think with the sword, not with the mind. Remember one of our children, who came up to battles fought in play-station or x-box, where reality and fiction blend without leaving the breath of a reflection. And so his fate is obvious: will be judged and killed twice, both by those who support it, both by those who denigrate.
The appeal of the father, in tears, which would take his place, not going to help.
as it should be.
Where ethics is just a word broken, which has lost its meaning, can not be expected to be included.
So nell'Orazio words, only the great treasure that we should take into account, are muddy, rendered ambiguous, broken, mocked, and finally saved.
the words to remain as well.
Why a sword can be broken and a man can be broken, but words can not be broken into gear in the world, it is them that make things knowable and unknowable.
For us, the unknowability of things is fatal.
Our skin is a limit to language, but also a great gift. How else I could write these few lines, in which, moving from one floor to another, reach out to those who want to understand?
I'll be back to sit on the chair, wondering if it is still possible on a human ethic, a way to face life without blinders distractions and false, with awareness and philosophical rigor. And I see
Maurizio Zanolli Fanceschetti and Leonardo, who lovingly and anger, tell them to feel the same need.
With words full, able to convey the truth, and incisive strokes, that's true you are using.