Zeno’s Conscience is the second title of the Teatro Donizetti Foundation’s Prose Season: Italo Svevo’s masterpiece, one of the classics of 20th-century Italian literature, will be staged at the Teatro Donizetti from Saturday, January 25 to Sunday, February 2, starring Alessandro Haber, one of the prominent figures of Italian theater, under the authoritative direction of Paolo Valerio. Alongside the main protagonist, there will be 10 other actors: Alberto Fasoli, Valentina Violo, Stefano Scandaletti, Ester Galazzi, Emanuele Fortunati, Francesco Godina, Meredith Airò Farulla, Caterina Benevoli, Chiara Pellegrin, Giovanni Schiavo. Adaptation by Monica Codena and Paolo Valerio. Set and costumes by Marta Crisolini Malatesta. Lighting by Gigi Saccomandi. Music by Oragravity. Video by Alessandro Papa. Stage movements by Monica Codena. Produced by Teatro Stabile del Friuli Venezia Giulia and GoldenArt Production. Duration 1 hour and 45 minutes without intermission. Show times: evening 8:30 PM; Sunday, January 26 and Sunday, February 2 at 3:30 PM. A pioneering novel with a powerfully European breath, ironic and fascinatingly complex, Zeno’s Conscience celebrated its centenary of publication in 2023: on that occasion, the Teatro Stabile del Friuli Venezia Giulia brought it to the stage as part of a rich research project dedicated to the extremely important cultural deposits of Trieste and its territory. The monumental figure of Italo Svevo and his extraordinary psychoanalytic novel represent a moment of profound, universal significance. Zeno’s Conscience, on the other hand, also possesses its own lively theatricality, for the experimentation of innovative writing and for being dominated by the engaging, complex, and very current figure of Zeno Cosini. The novel, in fact, springs from the notes of the protagonist who undergoes treatment by the psychoanalyst Doctor S, trying to resolve his malaise, his neurosis, and inability to feel “in tune” with the world and reality. His perception of himself as inept and sick, and his obstinate – but never entirely convinced – attempts to change and heal, lead Zeno to go through life surprisingly intertwining bourgeois everyday life with surreal episodes rich in humor and truth. Zeno’s Conscience has always been interpreted by great actors, such as Renzo Montagnani, Giulio Bosetti, Alberto Lionello, who was also the protagonist of the RAI TV series, and in the subsequent television edition, Johnny Dorelli. In the new production directed by Paolo Valerio, Zeno has the face of Alessandro Haber, an actor with powerful charisma and absolutely personal stage instinct, who, beyond any cliché, knows how to combine irony and depth in every interpretation.
“As Giorgio Strehler writes, Zeno’s Conscience is ‘a stone in the heart of all Triestines’ and for me, it’s a truly particular challenge,” writes Paolo Valerio in his director’s notes, “I approached this work strongly favoring Svevo’s narrative: I wanted to enclose in this theatrical experience some pages that I find extraordinary, unforgettable, building another Zeno alongside the narrating I. Therefore, Zeno – played by Alessandro Haber – tells his story and relives it through the body of another actor. Zeno reveals to us the stumbling, the humanity… And even Alessandro Haber’s character intertwines with this ineptitude and sometimes, during the show, the man overlaps with the actor, to emphasize ‘the originality of life’. Zeno belongs to us, he tells about us, our fragility, our deceptive conscience, the voice that speaks to us and that no one hears and that suggests life to us. Through the scrutinizing eye of Doctor S., I tried to restore the surreal, ironic, and sometimes mendacious dimension of Zeno, immersed in the atmosphere of his Trieste and all the extraordinary characters who live in it.”
La coscienza di Zeno tells «an imaginary world whose cerebral breath dialogues with the world of art, with psychoanalysis, and where I have tried to strongly render the dialectic between “external and internal” in the ruthless analysis that Zeno makes of his own existence, constantly leaving a window open to his inner world. Thanks to all the actors, collaborators, and thanks to the passion of Alessandro Haber, our show would like to be just like this, as Zeno Cosini says: “Life is neither beautiful nor ugly, but it is original. Life seemed so new to me as if I had seen it for the first time with its gaseous, fluid, and solid bodies. If we told it to someone who was not used to it, they would be left breathless in front of the enormous purposeless construction”», concludes the director.
