Teatro Filodrammatici director Emilio Russo has organized the entire 1999-2000 season around a single theme, The Art of Comedy, but with a strong emphasis on regional writers. Like last fall's Carta Canta, Il Medico dei pazzi offers a humorous scenario peopled with characters that could be taken from real life, here served up by Neapolitan actor/author Eduardo Scarpetta (1853-1925). Felice Sciosciammocca (played by the masterful Tonio Taiuti) has generously helped his nephew Errico Pasetta attend medical school.
Accompanied by Aunt Concetta and daughter Fifi, Uncle Felice now arrives expecting to see his nephew's new medical clinic. Not wanting to admit the money has gone for fun, Errico takes them to Pensione Stella, which he passes off as his very special insane asylum. From borderline lunatic landlady Amalia and her bizarre daughter Rosina to senile actor Raffaele and oddball Michelino, Felice gets the full treatment from staff and guests -- not that Felice himself wouldn't fit right in. Errico has passed his very first medical exam with flying colors.
There is a commedia dell'arte feel to the successive encounters between Scarpetta's zany characters, wearing modified clown makeup and sporting delightfully extravagant costumes by Ortensia de Francesco. Although director Laura Angiulli's production has been playing at Galleria Toledo in Naples and on tour for the better part of a decade, the performers have kept it fresh via controlled improvisation.
At the center of all was Tonio Taiuti, who played off the other "asylum" crazies and the sold-out house with consummate skill. Even though the actors intermixed Neapolitan dialect with Italian, the audience seemed to have no difficulties in following the action, broad but never slapstick. At the risk of slighting the others in this outstanding cast, Marcello Colasurdo's splendid take on innkeeper Amalia and Mario Santella's spoof on Othello were especially noteworthy.
Lit by Pasquale Mari, Giancarlo Muselli's two-sectioned revolving set enabled fast scene changes to keep the momentum up.
