Crime is never far from us and the mafia is not only an Italian historical phenomenon; it can be hidden everywhere, at any time and in the least suspicious situations, says the Italian theater director Riccardo Reina in an interview for "Vijesti".
He stayed in Podgorica as a guest of the International Alternative Theater Festival FIAT 2022, during which his play "Our House" with its original name, symbolically "Casa Nostra", was performed.
The piece is not only about the Italian mafia, the director points out, so even though the story is extremely local, it generally explores the mechanisms and dynamics of organized crime and the relationship with/toward power and institutions. The play and the theme that the Montenegrin audience had the opportunity to see brought a new and different theater that can first be called documentary, but at the same time investigative, civic, activist, puppetry, and definitely alternative.
Impressions from the performance in Podgorica, on the plateau of the Music Center building and the Montenegrin Cinematheque, were formed easily after the great applause that greeted the three-member ensemble consisting of Anđela Forti, Agata Garbujo and Aron Tevelde.
The main characters are members of the Italian mafia (many of whom are still active and up-to-date) and are literally staged, through archival videos of various authors. Reina revives or reinterprets events and characters, and among others, reminds of a series of criminal acts and murders committed by the mafia association led by Salvatore Reina, who is associated with the famous "Corleone, capo dei capi". His victims, among others, were Italian judges specializing in handling cases against the Sicilian mafia, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsalino.
One of the characters that appears in the play is the former Prime Minister of Italy, the tireless and controversial businessman Silvio Berlusconi, the former owner of the football club "Milan" during its most successful period, and now the owner of Monza, already in the first division of the Italian Serie A. Since it all started in 1992 .so the play chronologically starts the forgotten procedures with the attached video material and fights with the culture of forgetting. As such, this theater is among the first in Europe that deals with documentaries, Reina points out for "Vijesti" and continues to talk about impressions from Montenegro and the theater...
What are your impressions from visiting Montenegro and playing at FIAT? Were you able to assess how the audience follows the play, given that it is a local, that is, an Italian theme?
During the performance and creation of the atmosphere, it is difficult for us to always accurately assess whether and how the audience accepts the play. We don't manage to follow the reactions of the audience, although sometimes the energy is felt. Certainly, this fact sometimes presents us with a certain responsibility to constantly be in the game, so it creates a kind of tension so that during the performance we do not allow ourselves to fall and that charisma and energy remain without any (im)pulse. In fact, the biggest and most beautiful part is always the applause, and so it is in Montenegro. In the end, and especially when we perform the play somewhere else, outside of Italy, only then can we see if the audience accepted the play in the right way or if we did not do our job well.
I would say that the plot also corresponds to the Montenegrin conditions, but also to the society that throughout history has followed or is connected with the Italian conditions. On the other hand, how much do you know about the circumstances in Montenegro?
In my opinion, in Italy we are not too familiar with the current socio-political situation and scene in Montenegro, but the reason for this is not because people are disinterested, but because they do not even know the real situation in their country, Italy, either current or former. Many people today do not know the history of this topic that we covered, because this is one of the topics that is not talked about in Italy. Big media companies and politicians worked to make sure that it was not discussed and that the issue was completely closed.
Given that the ensemble is made up of a very young team, the members are around 25 years old or have just passed 30, how do you perceive the events you are talking about and whether and how they affected the young generations who were growing up at the time when this situation was developing?
The fundamental thing about this piece is that when we started working on this topic we realized that we all know different things about it or have different perceptions that we have heard over the years. Realizing that, I, as the oldest, then Agata, who is a little younger than me, and Angela and Aaron, as the youngest, stopped and wondered how someone who is even younger than all of us even knows what this is all about and if we actually have anything we know. That's why we decided to create something in this sense, where everyone can understand and understand the most important things, which are facts, that is, facts that we cannot discuss and that have no perspective, because they are true. We wanted to interpret them as such, so that people would know and see what the situation was, was or is in mafia circles.
It seems to me that it is a completely new kind of theater, I would say documentary theater. How did you come to that documentary-puppet form?
That's exactly what documentary theater is all about. We experimented, researched and played and that's how we came up with this idea and then the final result. When it comes to Italy, it seems to me that we are the originators of this idea and that there is no other production that deals with it, and when it comes to Europe, I think that there are possibly some ensembles of this type in Spain. The goal of this kind of theater is to show the historical facts and the facts I was talking about, and to avoid the interference of fiction, different interpretations, fake news, misinformation that is spread about this topic through the media...
With that, you made a rather bold move and presented yourself as artists, but also as citizens, activists, and even the media that used to be under (self) censorship... Does art, theater in the 21st century encompass all of that?
It is fundamental that artists should first of all be activists, then citizens, and then a kind of media channel. It is clear that today an artist is no longer just an artist in his basic and essential sense, but an artist in today's society is like a gift that fell from heaven. Also, the artist must be aware of his role in society, but also of the fact that he is not there to lead politics, because that's what politicians are there for, but he is there precisely to stop the audience for a moment and give them the opportunity to ask themselves questions, to reconsider and to understand that the only reality is not what politicians or the media present to us. It's not about the right or the left at all, it's not about any choice, but about the fact that people should stop and block what is imposed on them every day and choose their own path, but based on the truth.
The mafia works in the shadows, but it definitely affects everyone's lives, especially when it comes into politics. What is the situation today?
The impact is obvious. There are big effects on everyday life in Italy. Today, it is no longer a question of whether the mafia works in the shadows at all, that is, they work like that in the context of attacks, explosions, bombs, and it is not quite the same as it was before, but the mafia has now more than ever infiltrated politics, at least in Italy. It has been infiltrated to such an extent that it is no longer mobsters and big criminals who seek politicians and cooperation with them, but politicians who seek cooperation with mobsters. They have taken power over all spheres of Italian society and have an influence on all spheres, primarily on the economy and that healthy economy. This is because they are the ones who have more money to invest than everyone else, so money practically circulates only within their circles.
Did you find out anything about Montenegro and is there a possibility that our audience will see you again?
Specifically, when it comes to the mafia, I don't know much, but it is certain that we would all like to return to Montenegro. I notice many links and similarities that exist between our societies and countries, and maybe in the future we will manage to encourage people and the audience in Montenegro to ask questions, to question these topics, and people who are engaged in art in Montenegro to perhaps tell the story of his, that is, your, criminal circles, the story of the domestic mafia, through some similar theatrical expression.
Certainly, it is not only Montenegro that has the potential, I think that this piece would also meet a good reaction in France, but more or less in the whole of Europe, considering that we are all connected by a shadow that we do not see, and in question is the shadow of the mafia that acts on various ways.
Sports, like art, should be pure and true
One of the characters that appears in your play is Silvio Berlusconi, who has been present in Italy for decades, either through sports or politics. Sometimes there is an inkling of his retreat, but there has always been a big comeback, a return... What do you think about that and is the responsibility of society and the tendency to question responsibility even greater?
That's right. It is interesting that when we started working on this play, it seemed as if Silvio Berlusconi was a person, that is, an era, which had ended (in all fields of his activity). However, the fact that he is returning to politics, and also to football, that he is active and visible again on the Italian and world stage, has different echoes, whether it is his sports, political, social, or any involvement. On the one hand, it made our mission even bigger and more important, but it also made our task easier. Don't get me wrong, it's easier because there are young people who may not have known who and what Silvio Berlusconi really was until recently and didn't know the whole story about him and the era colored by him, and now they already have the opportunity to see his reality character and deed. We give the young audience the opportunity to see what he was like and how everything looked before, and then they have the opportunity to watch him again today, in the media, at public appearances, in sports.
And how would you react if I told you that I support "Milan", considering that many fans respect him in that context? At the same time, Dejan Savićević, practically thanks to him, stayed and played in "Milan"?
The only reaction I can have to this is that I am truly sorry that sport is being used for such purposes today. Sports, just like art and culture, should be special dimensions of life, pure and uncontaminated, true, moreover, sporting and cultural. As an individual, I sincerely appreciate and love sports, but I could never come to terms with the fact that sports are used for abuse, various types of money laundering, and even for political purposes and promotions.
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