Our Lady of the Turks

Carmelo Bene is certainly the last great artist of our 20th century literary world: the publication of his complete works by Bompiani in 1995 – allowing him to proudly call himself “a living classic” – can be considered proof that even the official culture accepts this fact as a clear and and unquestionable truth.

Born at Campi Salentina (Lecce) in 1937, he made his debut in ‘59 with Caligola by Camus, directed by Alberto Ruggiero; however, the following year he offered a work entirely in the first person with Spettacolo Majakovskij, and background music by Bussotti.

In the following decade, the great talent of the actor-director had the chance to fully unfold in legendary shows: his virulent, aggressive and disrespectful – to the point of outrage – rereadings of Pinocchio by Collodi (1961), Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1961), Edward II by Marlowe (1963), Salomè by Oscar Wilde (1964), Manon by Prévost (1964), Hamlet by Shakespeare-Laforgue (1967) caused a real uproar, and almost unanimous slating from the critics – except the discerning Ennio Flaiano – and shocked reactions from the public.

His coming out of the basement dimension and the very happy approach to cinema (beginning in ‘68 with Nostra Signora dei Turchi, subsequently followed up with another 6 feature films) contributed to boosting his popularity: in the ’70s, with the superb La cena delle beffe by Sem Benelli (1974), Shakepeare’s Romeo and Juliet (1976), S.A.D.E. (1977), Manfred by Byron (1979) he had a big success and received wide acclaim.

Carmelo Bene has spent the last 20 years under the banner of experimentation: in particular, his work on the voice pushes the acting dimension towards new bounds, and places him in the forefront on the contemporary world scene.

If the direction of the Theatre Biennial, for which he was called in 1988, ended up a failure, memorable works still remain – the readings of Majakovskij, Leopardi, the Canti orfici by Dino Campana – as a testimonial to his unending creativity: in addition to that Hamlet Suite produced in ‘94, where he added his own music to Laforgue’s text, with effects of extraordinary, bewildering and heart-rending lyricism. A definitive performance, a milestone in home-grown theatre at any time. —italica.rai.it