Reviewed by:

• The Theater of Narration: From the Peripheries of History to the Main Stages of Italy by Juliet Guzzetta
• Stefano Boselli

Despite its minimalist setup—consisting mostly of a single performer on stage, sitting on a chair or standing—the Italian theatre of narration exhibits a surprising vitality. Beginning with its earliest solo shows in 1987 and following its rise to national prominence, especially with the first televised performances a decade later and their wide distribution on DVD, the genre importantly speaks to Italians’ experiences and concerns. Juliet Guzzetta argues in The Theater of Narration: From the Peripheries of History to the Main Stages of Italy that because narrators bridge personal life events with those of their local communities in relation to national-level issues, connecting their stories with history at large, these performers’ activities—archival research, interviews, and creative storytelling—are a form of “historical praxis” (6). Akin to the methods of microhistorians such as Carlo Ginzburg and Giovanni Levi, these performances contribute to the reevaluation of history from a plurality of perspectives, emphasizing those of the common folk. Each of the volume’s five chapters brings together the historical, cultural, and theatrical context while referencing critical and performance theory to analyze the genre’s genealogies, unique traits, and particularly remarkable productions.

Guzzetta points out that the Teatro Settimo theatre company was central to the beginnings of the Italian theatre of narration (chapters 1, 2, and 4). It was founded in 1974 by director Gabriele Vacis, performer Laura Curino, designer Lucio Diana, and others in Settimo Torinese, an “industrial wasteland” near Turin (27), at a time of violent social and political upheaval in Italy. Guzzetta underscores three major influences on the company: the politically engaged monologues of Nobel Prize-winning playwright-cum-performer Dario Fo and especially his wife Franca Rame, with their performance setting in close proximity to the audience; Jerzy Grotowski’s Poor Theatre, in its quest for what is truly essential for live performance; and the practice of animazione teatrale (theatrical animation), which, stemming from the 1968 student and workers’ protests, viewed the narrator as a cultural laborer didactically engaged in improving the lives of the underprivileged. Indeed, the company’s first improvised performance, Questa storia non ci piace: Buchiamola! (We Don’t Like This Story: Let’s Punch Holes in It!)—based on interviews and historical research on the “conflicts between the farmers and clothing launderers in the mid-nineteenth century outside Turin” (42)—entailed [End Page 118] storytelling from minor characters’ points of view, with the goal of activating the local community. Inspired by Michel Foucault’s notion of heterotopia, some of Teatro Settimo’s projects also engaged with local cultural organizations to reinvent the use of city locations. These traits, Guzzetta historicizes, would later influence the theatre of narration.

Curino’s masterful Camillo Olivetti: Alle radici di un sogno (At the Roots of a Dream, 1996), on the visionary engineer who founded Italy’s first typewriter factory, and other monologues later became crucial references for two generations of narrators who worked or studied with company members—including Marco Paolini and Giuliana Musso—and others who more indirectly tapped into the genre’s potential—such as Marco Baliani, who gave an emotional account of his reaction to dramatic political events of the 1970s in Corpo di Stato (Body of State, 1998).

Apart from thematic lines intersecting history and politics, and with a focus on theory rare in Italian studies, Guzzetta compares the genre with other performance approaches (introduction) and illuminates the formal traits of its language for the stage (chapter 3). In terms of postures and gestures employed to evoke multiple characters, she views the “laconic physicality of the solitary actor” (90) as a contemporary version of classical oratory. As for language, at times influenced by the 1970s antiestablishment discourse, the use of regional dialects allows narrators not only to ground their stories in recognizable locations and communities but also to elevate the level of agency of humble local actors to that of those speaking...

 审阅者：

• 
  叙事剧场：从历史的边缘到意大利的主要舞台朱丽叶·古泽塔
•  斯特凡诺·博塞利

尽管其极简主义的设置——主要由舞台上的单个表演者组成，坐在椅子上或站着——意大利叙事剧院却展现出令人惊讶的活力。从 1987 年最早的个展开始，到其在全国范围内的知名度，尤其是十年后的首次电视表演以及 DVD 的广泛发行，该类型重要地讲述了意大利人的经历和担忧。朱丽叶·古泽塔（Juliet Guzzetta）在《叙事剧场：从历史的边缘到意大利的主要舞台》中指出，由于叙述者将个人生活事件与当地社区有关国家层面问题的事件联系起来，将他们的故事与整个历史联系起来，这些表演者的活动——档案研究、访谈和创造性的故事讲述——是“历史实践”的一种形式(6)。类似于卡洛·金兹堡和乔瓦尼·莱维等微观历史学家的方法，这些表演有助于从多个角度重新评估历史，并强调普通民众的观点。该卷的每一章都汇集了历史、文化和戏剧背景，同时引用批评和表演理论来分析该流派的谱系、独特特征和特别出色的作品。

古泽塔指出，塞蒂莫剧院剧团是意大利叙事戏剧起源的核心（第 1、2 和 4 章）。该剧于 1974 年由导演 Gabriele Vacis、演员 Laura Curino、设计师 Lucio Diana 等人在都灵 (27) 附近的“工业荒地”塞蒂莫托里内塞 (Settimo Torinese) 创立，当时意大利正发生剧烈的社会和政治动荡。古泽塔强调了对剧团的三大影响：诺贝尔奖获得者、剧作家兼表演者达里奥·福（Dario Fo）和他的妻子弗兰卡·拉梅（Franca Rame）的政治独白，其表演背景靠近观众；杰西·格洛托夫斯基（Jerzy Grotowski）的《贫穷剧院》（Poor Theatre），致力于探寻现场表演的真正本质；动画剧场（animazione teatrale）的做法源于 1968 年学生和工人的抗议，将叙述者视为致力于改善弱势群体生活的文化劳动者。事实上，该公司的第一次即兴表演，Questa storia non ci piace：Buchiamola！ （我们不喜欢这个故事：让我们在它上面打洞吧！）——基于对“十九世纪中叶都灵郊外农民和衣物洗涤者之间的冲突”的采访和历史研究（42）——需要[尾页] 118]从次要人物的角度讲故事，目的是活跃当地社区。受到米歇尔·福柯异托邦概念的启发，塞蒂莫剧院的一些项目还与当地文化组织合作，重塑城市地点的使用。古泽塔认为，这些特征后来影响了叙事戏剧。

库里诺的杰作《卡米洛·奥利维蒂：梦想的根源》（At the Roots of a Dream，1996）讲述了一位富有远见的工程师创办了意大利第一家打字机工厂，其他独白后来成为在公司工作或学习的两代叙述者的重要参考资料成员——包括 Marco Paolini 和 Giuliana Musso——以及其他更间接地挖掘这一流派潜力的人——比如 Marco Baliani，他在《Corpo di Stato》（《国家机构》，1998 年）中情感地描述了他对 1970 年代戏剧性政治事件的反应。 ）。

除了历史和政治交叉的主题线，并重点关注意大利研究中罕见的理论之外，古泽塔还将这一流派与其他表演方法进行了比较（引言），并阐明了其舞台语言的形式特征（第 3 章）。就用来唤起多个角色的姿势和手势而言，她将“孤独演员的简洁身体”（90）视为古典演讲的当代版本。至于语言，有时受到 20 世纪 70 年代反建制话语的影响，地方方言的使用不仅使叙述者能够将他们的故事扎根于可识别的地点和社区，而且还能将卑微的当地演员的代理水平提升到说话者的水平。 。