Phantasmagoria

The show at the Mongiovino Theater is inspired by the famous night of June 1816 when at Villa Diodati, on Lake Geneva, five great writers, Lord Byron, John Polidori, Claire Clairmont, Percy and Mary Shelley, challenged each other who would have written the scariest tale. Only two succeeded in the task: the young Mary Shelley with the famous novel Frankenstein and John Polidori with The Vampire. In fact, the story begins on a cold and stormy autumn night, in which two sisters are guests of a friend of theirs who lives in a castle just outside the city. After dinner, the three friends decide to play a game: the winner is the one among them who tells the most terrifying ghost story. The protagonists then, in front of the lit fireplace and among the trembling candles, begin to tell each other the most different stories: of day and night ghosts, of loyal lovers, of vindictive and executioners, even of a little clumsy, shy or prankster ghosts. In short, all the stories taken from the most beautiful pages of Western literature: from Edgard Allan Poe to Oscar Wilde, from Mary Shelley to Charles Dickens, from Lovecraft to Italo Calvino. The title Phantasmagoria refers to the fact that “puppetry” techniques are used in the show - that is, puppets, marionettes, shadows - and video projections. The Phantasmagoria was in fact a form of theatrical entertainment born in France in the seventeenth century and developed in the early 800s, which used one or more special magical lanterns with which images of ghosts, skeletons, demons were projected on the walls and white sheets of all kinds, made even more frightening thanks to the help of smoke, shadows, semi-transparent screens, sounds and voiceovers. These figures had a strong emotional impact, unreal but, at the same time, visible and perceptible. Directed by Danilo Conti, with Alessandro Accettella, Silvia Grande and Viviana Mancini.

Photo: Mongiovino Theater official site