Vendola debuts in the theater: “This is also politics”

“Everyone can tell their own hard night and the fatigue of waiting for the light, the impatience of dawn”. Speaking with Adnkronos is Nichi Vendola, a former member of the Communist Refoundation and president of the Puglia Region for 10 years. The show, divided into eight poetic chapters, with which the founder of Sinistra, Ecologia e Libertà makes its debut today in the theater at Piccinni in Bari is entitled, ‘What remains of the night’, a biblical quotation. Someone wrote that the former president “becomes a poet”, perhaps forgetting that he has always written poems, published over time in some collections. The novelty, probably, lies in the fact that this time these compositions contained in the Patrie collection, published by Il Saggiatore, which includes both known and unpublished lyrics, are brought to the theater and that Vendola himself, like a real actor, will read them, supported by a direction and accompanied by the music of Populous and the videos of Mario Amura. The ‘premiere’ of ‘What remains of the night’ at Piccinni has been ‘sold out’ for a few days. “I bring on stage a monologue that is a reflection on the themes I deal with in my book ‘Patrie’ – explains Vendola – I will recite a few poems, some even unpublished. Obviously the monologue will have its own literary style, we could define it as a ‘meeting in Pasolini’ style. love ‘. And I will take it wherever it is required. “What does this experience at the theater have to do with that politics? “I could get away with a joke – continues Vendola – and tell her that when politics becomes a theater, then theater is better, the place that gives politics a sacred solemnity. However, every time we relate to others we do politics, talking about life and death in front of a crowded audience is a political gesture. Of course, a thousand miles away from the propagandism of agit-props “. and peace The word homeland can only be declined in the plural, according to Vendola. “I say this in reaction to the return of the ghosts of nationalism – explains Vendola – If the term ‘homeland’ alludes to a ‘national primacy’ and perhaps it is filled with myths and legends about one’s ‘lineage’, if walls are erected to fracture the ‘unity of the human race, if social wealth is wasted in the arms race and in’ patriotic ‘wars, then a prudent and conscious use of the word homeland is needed. to the question of coexistence and peace. It raises a theme – he argues – that cannot be entirely delegated to religion: the duty of fraternity “. As for the latest developments on Ukraine, “every war has its causes and specificities – underlines Vendola – what unites them all is the legitimacy of killing, even mass extermination. In the horrible war that completed the pulping of Yugoslavia – recalls the former president – both the ‘small homelands’ of the Balkan leaders, with their respective ‘butchers’, and the shameful attitude of the European powers to think of profiting from the crash of a nation whose shreds were tempting many”. “I don’t subscribe to a category of poets, I don’t choose a style, I don’t decide a poetic at the table”, explains Vendola. “I write because I cannot do without it, it is an irresistible physical and mental impulse. It is written out of too much pain or too much love. I write, looking for words that can amaze and quench my thirst, looking inside myself for new words and unheard of thoughts. Titanism intellectual of Leopardi and that of Gramsci – he highlights – are the ‘ashes’ with which, in Pasolini’s way, we must compare the venal and obscene modesty of our times: at least to feel a shock, a pedagogical shock, or at least to have, as Mahmood sings and Blanco, some ‘chills, chills’ “. knowledge of the past, including literature, is the fundamental compass to guide us As for the title of the show, ‘What remains of the night’, “everyone can tell their own hard night and the fatigue of waiting for the light, the impatience of dawn” , says Vendola. Together with his verses, Vendola will bring in his monologue great poets and authors such as Yehuda Amichai, Alessandro Manzoni, Alda Merini, Franz Kafka, Wislawa Szymborska, Bertolt Brecht, Marguerite Yourcenar, Edgar Lee Masters, Orazio, Giacomo Leopardi, Ugo Foscolo, Vittorio Bodini , Rocco Scotellaro, Tommaso Di Ciaula, Saffo and Pier Paolo Pasolini. “I mention the poets and writers who changed my life, I barely touch them,” she explains. “Libraries are a repository of resources, sometimes still secret, of treasures still to be exploited. The past cannot be asked to solve the problems of the present – concludes Vendola – but knowledge of the past, literature included, is the fundamental compass for orient ourselves in the present “. The show, which avails itself of the friendly collaboration of the director Walter Malosti, takes place as part of the ‘Teatro dei Sogni’ project.