“La vita che ti diedi” staged by Marco Bernardi

Abstract

This article examines the production by Marco Bernardi, La vita che ti diedi written by Luigi Pirandello, a text which exalts the mission and the function of a mother. The main character, Donn’Anna, is obsessively withdrawn into her beloved son. Unlike Massimo Castri’s staging of 1978, Bernardi doesn’t restrict himself in underling the central position of Donn’Anna, but sets off all the characters, including the sister, Fiorina, with a personal interest in money. Thanks to some evocative costumes of 1920s, Bernardi offers us the picture of the Italian bourgeoisie, both hypocritical and moralistically prude.