A new Italian production of William Shakespeare's Hamlet starts previewing Dec. 11 at Trieste's Politeama Rossetti, with a press night on Dec. 15. Translated into Italian by Agostino Lombardo, the new Italian mounting is one of the most anticipated events in the Italian theatre season. The show is directed by Antonio Calenda and stars Kim Rossi Stuart in the title role.
Kim Rossi Stuart, 29, is one of the most popular young Italian actors. He has worked intensively at the cinema, playing a major role in Michelangelo Antonioni and Wim Wenders' "Beyond the Clouds" alongside Jean Reno, Irene Jacob and John Malkovich, and starring in the critically acclaimed "Senza Pelle" ("No Skin"), in which he played a young man obsessed with a librarian. His two most recent films, "The Garden of Eden," directed by Massimo D'Alatri and "La ballata del lavavetri" directed by Peter Del Monte, were presented at the Venice Fim Festival last September.
At the theatre, he played a featured role in William Shakespeare's King Lear directed by Luca Ronconi; and starred alongside veteran actor Turi Ferro in the Italian production of Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt's Broadway bound play The Visitor .
Other principals include Gianni Musy (Polonius), Osvaldo Ruggieri (Ghost of Hamlet's father), Alvia Reale (Gertrude), Gianfranco Varetto (Claudius) and Rossana Mortara (Ophelia).
Hamlet features sets by Francesco Calcagnini, who recently worked with Luca Ronconi in the critically acclaimed production of Medea , and costumes by Nanà Cecchi, who created the designs for Michelle Pfeiffer and Rutger Hauer in the film "Ladyhawke," and worked closely with director Jerry Zucker designing costumes for the feature film "First Knight" starring Sean Connery, Richard Gere, Julia Ormond, Ben Cross and John Gielguld. Incidental music has been written by the Sarajevo born internationally acclaimed composer Goran Bregovic, whose credits include the soundtracks for Emir Kusturica's films "Time of the Gypsies," "Arizona Dream" and the Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or winner "Underground."
Hamlet is produced by Trieste's Teatro Stabile del Friuli-Venezia Giulia. The show will run in Trieste through Dec. 20 and will then tour to Naples' Teatro Politeama (Jan. 5-17), Rome's Teatro Quirino (Jan. 26-Feb. 14), Genoa's Teatro della Corte (Feb. 16-28), Cesena's Teatro Bonci (Mar. 2-7), Udine's Teatro Nuovo (Mar. 11-14) and Bergamo's Teatro Donizzetti (Mar. 19-24). Tickets and information are available at the Politeama Rossetti box office 011-39-04054331 or 011 -39-040567201).
--By Stefano Curti
Italy Correspondent
