News - September 18, 2009

SUF presents world debut of Oscar Wilde’s play A Florentine Tragedy

In an impressive collaboration with New York University, Florence’s City Museum Center and several other important Florentine institutions, SUF presents “Oscar Wilde and A Florentine Tragedy: A Series of Special Events”, including three related lectures and the world debut of Oscar Wilde’s one-act play A Florentine Tragedy.

A Florentine Tragedy, left in manuscript at the time of Wilde’s death, is a domestic tragedy set in a fictional recreation of Renaissance Florence. Its three principals, the young prince Guido Bardi, the merchant Simone, and Bianca, the merchant’s wife, find themselves trapped in a fatal cat and mouse game that compels them to rethink their easy assumptions about beauty, strength, commerce and aesthetics.

The series of Wilde events begins with three lectures, each exploring specific aspects of Wilde's script, and the challenges of interpreting it for live theatrical performance in 2009. Among these challenges are the speaking of Shakespearean-style verse, choosing appropriate props and costumes, and the communication of Wilde’s attempt to find common ground between the commercial and aesthetic instincts of the Italian Renaissance and those of his own Victorian England. 

The Wilde events culminate in a world debut of the first fully professional staging of the play, produced by Joel Kaplan, former Chair of the Department of Theatre Arts at the University of Birmingham, and Founder Director of Birmingham University Postgraduate Centre for the Study of Drama, which will take place at the historic Palazzo Davanzati in Florence.

Eric Nicholson, SUF Professor of Theater Arts, put forth the proposal and worked closely with Kaplan to make these events happen. Kaplan has published and lectured widely on Oscar Wilde and late nineteenth century theater. Nicholson observes, “The performance’s very setting, the Palazzo Davanzati, is a well-preserved fifteenth-century townhouse/museum, where an important exhibition on Anglo-American art collectors and connoisseurs of Wilde’s own milieu, “Federico e la bottega degli Angeli,” co-curated by Francesca Baldry of NYU, and Rosanna ProtoPisani, Director of Museo di Palazzo Davanzati, will soon open. Says Nicholson, “This is a rare opportunity to experience a play not only as entertainment, but as a kind of cultural phenomenon. The lectures will prepare audiences to understand how Wilde’s play re-invents and stages the world of Renaissance Florence.”

“Oscar Wilde and A Florentine Tragedy: A Series of Special Events”

Lectures

Wilde in Italy *
Tuesday, September 29, time 6:00 pm
New York University, Villa La Pietra
Via Bolognese 120 - Firenze

Wilde in Italy
Wednesday, September 30, at 6:00 pm
British Institute Library
Lungarno Guicciardini, 9 - Firenze

Oscar Wilde and “A Florentine Tragedy”
Tuesday, October 6, 6:20 pm
Syracuse University in Florence
Piazza Savonarola 15 – Firenze

Performances *
B-15 Arts & Media UK present
a world debut of Wilde’s one act play
A Florentine Tragedy
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Two shows: at 4:00 pm & at 6:00 pm
Palazzo Davanzati
via Porta Rossa 13 - Firenze

Producer: Joel Kaplan
Director: Rob Cameron (Regents Park Theatre)
Guido Bardi: Elliot Cowan (Royal Shakespeare Company)
Simone: Matt Douglas (Royal Shakespeare Company)
Bianca: Devon Black (BBC)

Free admission to all events
*For these dates Pre-registration is required: lapietra.reply@nyu.edu

A collaboration among
Syracuse University in Florence
New York University
The British Institute
Museo di Palazzo Davanzati
Palazzo Tornabuoni
Soprintendenza Speciale per il  Patrimontio storico, Artistico
ed Etnoantropologico per il Polo Museale della città di Firenze

 

Upcoming events at SUF

Lorenzo de' Medici as Art Patron: A Cost - Benefit Analysis
Jonathan Nelson
Wednesday, September 22, 2009 6:20pm
Villa Rossa, Room 13 Piazza Savonarola 15

Michelangelo's Laurentian Library:
The Structure and Patron Behind the Form
Silvia Catitti
Wednesday, November 11, 2009  6:20pm
Villa Rossa, Room 13 Piazza Savonarola 15