PRISONERS IN SEVENTH FLOOR- A COMEDY AGAINST ECONOMIC CRISIS OPENS TEATRO DEI CONCIATORI SEASON

The Conciatori Theatre opened the new theater season with the comedy PRISONERS IN SEVENTH FLOOR, written by Maria Letizia Compatangelo, with Gianna Paola Scaffidi, Rosario Galli and Elia Paniccia, directed by Donatella Brocco.

The script addresses a topic with gentle irony anything but fun: the banks’ fraud against the citizens … a small great tragedy of our times and of our country. The protagonists, in fact, the two spouses, Pino and Mariuccia, once would have also been two wealthy intellectuals: he is a university professor, but still classified as a researcher, she is a translator from English of children’s books. They not got rich, but they would be equally happy, if the bank had not drained all their savings with fraudulent investments. And moreover, there is also a son abroad (present as a voice on skype) that could make a brilliant career, but still needs the support of parents. Their only asset is the house, but on the seventh floor of a tower block in the suburbs, in a neighborhood that the university neighborhood has made attractive to speculators.Indeed an estate agency bought the building, which wants to restructure to sell their apartments at prices increased tenfold, and has already evicted all the old tenants. Not them, of course, but to own means having to pay its share of the renovation, a huge figure, while the emissaries of estate agency pressed with “warnings” threatening, they have the beautiful and damned face of Angelo, a twenty year old and cynical armored. But just this character, at the beginning hated enemy, will be the one who helps them to find the way out …
The show is fun and enjoyable, but it also offers profound insights on an issue more topical than ever and burning, or how the economic crisis has depleted morally as well as economically people, making obsolete and sometimes laughable values such as honesty, solidarity and fairness. Pino and Mariuccia as romantic heroes of the past stubbornly defend the values they believe in against all odds, also supported by a mutual love that has withstood the test of time shock and disillusionment. This their “whiteness” in the end will breach even in the young and aggressive real estate agent from which the two spouses, however, also have something to learn to get by in this society full of sharks.

You can not smile often during the show, despite the bitterness of the theme dealt with, both for the wealth of daring twists in the plot is for the delicate interpretation of Gianna Paola Scaffidi and Rosario Galli that make them particularly credible and sympathetic to the public the two poor spouses messed up; also they are irresistible and funny even the scenes of conflict with the well-hatched young real estate agent played by the young and talented performer Elia Paniccia. Appreciable also the choice of music used to the transition from one picture to another, representative of that generation of dreamers who the protagonists belong and that makes them so difficult to understand the ethical degradation that our society is undergoing.
It is hoped that this script will soon be repeated in other Roman theaters to how he manages to cope with elegant lightness one of the most dramatic problems and bleak that the economic crisis in our country has caused.
WHERE WE SEEN: CONCIATORI THEATRE, Via dei Conciatori, 5
WHEN: from the 18th of October since 30, 2016

Vera Stufano

Actually Vera Stufano is a teacher in Secondary School, but she has been actress, director and writer for theatre. Very fond of acting, she is also interested in reviewing dramatic works performed on Roman theatres, in order to let people know the most beautiful plays and the most amazing and amusing performers on stage in Rome.
Born on 15 June 1972 in Bari, classical high school graduated and afterwards college graduated in Licterature, later she has taken a master in Mass –Media Comunication on University of Florence “Cesare Alfieri” and she has attended to Screenwriting School of Mediaset. Since 1999 until 2005 she has worked as free-lance for some TV Drama Production Society as Lux Vide S.p.A and Rai Due: she has been story editor assistant and Press Office personnel.
On 2006 she makes a different choice of life: she decided to become a school teacher and left tv showbusiness for theatre. Today she teachs italian Licterature and History in Secondary School, but she is also involved in acting whitin a little amateur theater Company “I Ricercati” or acting by herself . She has been actress, director and drama writer and she has performed on a lot of Roman stages, among which “Teatro Agorà”, “Teatro dell’Orologio” and “Piccolo Eliseo”.