Good news for Fellini fans

Lost radio plays adapted for the stage by writer Idalberto Fei

The great films of Fellini, from the luminous and unsettling Rome of La Dolce Vita to the haunting images of a village childhood in Amarcord, present a wellspring of bittersweet pleasures. The bitterness grew a little sharper in 1993 when his fans lost Federico Fellini from this world at the age of 73. And how much sweeter are the pleasures of the existing films, when you know that no more will be added to the list!
Imagine then the pleasure of author and director Idalberto Fei, when, after the great filmmaker's death, he discovered a series of forgotten radio plays written by Fellini. "The story starts in Italy, about four years ago," explains Fei, who was working as a researcher at RAI (Radiotelevisione Italiana) at the time. "Everyone believed that they were lost." When they were examined, the scripts proved to be work from the very beginning of Fellini's professional life, in the 1940s, even before his career-making collaboration with Roberto Rossellini on Open City.
When the scripts came to light, Fei was asked to direct them for rebroadcast, since the original live performances had never been recorded. "With the first of these, I got the Prix Italia," he says. Now, Fei is directing the works again, this time in an English-language version adapted for the Stratford Festival stage by Damiano Pietropaolo. To create a full evening of Felliniesque entertainment, three of the scripts are being staged together.
"All the seeds of the first Fellini films are here," notes Fei: "the train, the variety theatre, the director who thinks he is the centre of the world; the pathetic note, the comic note. The first Fellini film is already here."
The first script, "The Matchbox," is about two strangers, one of whom talks the other out of all his possessions, beginning - as the title suggests - with just his matchbox. The second script, "A Love Letter" tells of a country girl whose lover leaves for the city. He sends her regular love letters: blank sheets of paper upon which she may choose to read whatever message she most hopes for. "The girl of 'Love Letters' is very close to Cabiria because she is so ingenuous," comments Fei.
Though set in a realistic 1940s radio studio, the third piece, "A Special Broadcast," already shows Fellini's love of the surreal. The broadcast-in-progress soon departs from the real-life world as it conjures up such characters as a talking fish. "The director of 'Special Broadcast' is in a way the brother of the director in 8 1/2'," Fei adds.
The three works are bound to delight anyone who loves Fellini's work by offering glimpses into the development of the young filmmaker's creative imagination. "It was Fellini," says Fei. "Even if he was 20, it was Fellini."


The Fellini Radio Plays will be presented along with a new one-act play, Bereav'd of Light, by Ian Ross, at the Stratford Festival's new Studio Theatre until August 25. For tickets and information, call 800.567.1600 or visit www.stratfordfestival.ca.

Publication Date: 2002-08-04
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=1658