FOR EDITH PIAF

Direction: Pino Di Buduo
With: Nathalie Mentha

Venue: Satyajit Ray Auditorium – ICCR Kolkata
Date and time: Tuesday 20 March 2012, 6:30 PM onwards

The performance is a musical journey in the France of the Thirties and Fifties through Edith Piaf’s songs. Stories of lives in the environment of the French gangsters, stories of women in love, stories of passions, of dreams, of memories. It is the tale of a period, 1939, a historical moment highly alive through all Europe. It is the period of Jacques Prévert’s poetry, of Cartier-Bresson’s photography, of Jean Cocteau’s theatre tales, of the coming of the Second World War which destroys so many families, of the songs for Charlie Chaplin’s films, of the images of the characters of De Sica’s film “Roma Città Aperta”, of the Frech Resistance, of the struggle for life, for love. The performance theme, the soul which ties the stories, and maybe more Edith Piaf’s soul seems to be: “don’t ever stop believing in love, whatever happens”.

PERFORMANCES:  Salvador de Bahia; Rieti; Fara Sabina (RI); Abbiategrasso (MI); Bari; Bergamo; Roma; Caserta.

NATHALIE MENTHA

Nathalie Mentha was born in Geneva . After completing school, she joined the Theatre School of the Swiss Clown Dimitri. From 1979 Nathalie Mentha lives in Italy and works with the Potlach Theatre. She has worked in the productions like “The Dry Tree’s Dances”, “Pearls Fishermen”, “Before the Fest is over” , “Sailors’ Dreams” , “Joan of the Spirits”, “Opera Tango’s Emigrants”, “The Conductors”, “Images Parade”, “Turandot”, “Shakespeare Project”, “Mediterranean Myths”, “Imaginary Ambassadors”, “Felliniana”, “Viva la Vita”, “To Edith Piaf”, “Hotel Europa”, “20.000 Leagues under the seas”. With the Potlach Theater Nathalie Mentha also works as a pedagogue in schools and universities and has synthesised her experience in two work demonstrations: Memories, Sand Tales. She conducts workshops on Voice and Space, Fights of Clowns, Street Theater, Marco Polo project.

Since 1991 she has been participating in the conception and organisation of INVISIBLE CITIES (Intercultural and interdisciplinary project with local associations and professional artists from every part of the world) directed by Pino Di Buduo .

Duration: 60 min.

Presented in Delhi, Kolkata and Ahmedabad by the Embassy of Switzerland in collaboration with the Alliances Françaises
Presented in Puducherry by the Embassy of Switzerland in collaboration with the Tantidhara International Theatre Festival