Ferdinando is unquestionably the masterpiece of Antonio Ruccello, the Neapolitan playwright and director. The play was written in 1986 – the year of the author’s untimely death – for Isa Danieli, who starred in it for years. It lives again in Arturo Cirillo’s version, with Sabrina Scuccimarra, Anna Rita Vitolo and Riccardo Ciccarelli. The play takes place after Italy’s unification and the fall of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies: Donna Clotilde, a Bourbon baroness, cannot accept the social ascent of the new bourgeoisie and decides to confine herself to the enforced seclusion of a Vesuvian villa. Only the arrival of the young Ferdinand, with his “dark and ingratiating” beauty, will change the course of events. The piece is not so much a historical portrait as a ruthless character assassination.

by Annibale Ruccello
direction Arturo Cirillo
Marche Teatro, Teatro Metastasio di Prato, Fondazione Teatro di Napoli – Teatro Bellini