Salvador Kent
Beatrice Schiaffino continues her tarot series in L’Imperatrice, subtitled “An impossible interview with the Countess of Castiglione”. Onscreen, Schiaffino plays an interviewer from the future who talks with Virginia Oldoini, the countess, also Schiaffino, but live onstage. The text, again written by Andrea Balzola, is strikingly different to their previous collaboration La Papesse (Which I reviewed here, and Binge Fringe reviewed here). Where La Papesse was theological, this is a political, cerebral piece which replaces mysticism for the intrigues of courts and the corridors of power at the height of nineteenth-century society. Where La Papesse is about growth, the final image of L’Imperatrice is funerary. It ends up being a remarkable play.
Schiaffino’s performance is exemplary. Interviewing, she smiles, but coldly, with a sense of calculation. There’s a clear parallel drawn between this futuristic woman and Oldoini, although of course the latter’s period stateliness is more defined. Playing Oldoini, Schiaffino’s gorgeous dress elevates her presence to one with a serious aristocratic swagger. The interview is in many ways an attempt at an interrogation, with the figure prying into Oldoini’s most personal relationships, and most scandalous affairs. The play thematically transcends simple biography though. It explores, with ambivalence, her usage of beauty to rise to the top of the court. Juxtaposing this is a very different story, told through transcripts of her own personal diaries, which reveal a much more vulnerable Countess, especially once she feels like her beauty begins to slip.
This production charts a whole life. It does so with multiple sources. It runs the risk of obscuring the human through layers of form and transcript, through a stately stare. Something which allievates these risks are Schiaffino’s filmic and photographic tabelau vivants, which are extraordinarily composed pieces of work inspired by, but not recreating Pierre Louis-Pierson’s famous photographs of her. Most striking is Schiaffino pale white, the countess almost dead, looking at us like a ghost.
L’Imperatrice’s mortality and philosophy is exemplary. It is a portrait of the machinations that built nations. Not stories of glory, but of politics, subtleties. It interrogates who we interrogate, and why we do so. Beyond her beauty, some of Oldoini remains an enigma, and we are asked to fill in the blanks from a presentation of her. It’s a smart conceit, and a show of some complexity and subtlety, but maybe without the passions of La Papesse. Still, an astonishing performance from Schiaffino, and her relentless multidisciplinary commitment to the project emphatically shows the work deserves further life.
Recommended Drink: You’re in Sicily, get on a nice Sicilian red I reckon, one worthy of an aristocrat.
You can catch L’Imperatrice at Catania OFF Fringe Festival one last time Teatro Vitaliano Brancati on Sunday 18th October from 21.30 (60 min). Tickets are available through the Catania OFF Fringe Festival Online Box Office.
Shay Mace
Sarah Kher-Bek
