Mario Faticoni's 85 years: "Theater is a vital need"

Mario Faticoni , actor, journalist and writer, has just turned 85. Friends from the world of theater organized the birthday party at the Saddi house in Pirri. Born in Verona, but Sardinian by adoption, he is one of the founders of the Cooperative Theater of Sardinia and creator of the company "Il Crogiuolo" which has chosen the Teatro dell'Arco as its home, in via Portoscalas in Cagliari.

What did the stage give you?

“Everything has always been a vital need. With the theater I was reborn after a childhood and adolescence in the 'fatal Verona' where I suffered a lot because of the distance from my mother. I felt a sense of abandonment and loneliness. 'Make faces', my grandmother would tell me and I would laugh and clown with the rudimentary histrionic skills of a child. The theater helped me to overcome that trauma ”.

Then the arrival in Cagliari.

“ In Cagliari I lived the experiences of the university theater, the Cut, founded in 1959. We felt like pioneers with the desire to build something lasting. I always have in mind the words of the painter Primo Pantoli: 'The destiny of cultural operators in Sardinia is to see the desert and consider it a building area'. We wanted to make the desert come alive. Political power used us as tools to achieve its ends, but it had no desire to build the theater in Sardinia ”.

In 1968 the Cooperative Theater of Sardinia was born.

“A fundamental experience, a revolutionary project that has created a new theatrical sensibility. With our shows we went to almost all the towns of the island. With 'Su Connottu' we made 350 replicas. For me that partnership was a family from which, however, I have never felt so loved ".

A memory?

“At the Cinque Terre Festival I shook Eduardo De Filippo's hand. We were there to collect an award for 'Su Connottu'. With us, among the winners, was the great Eduardo ”.

Why did you decide to leave the Cooperative?

“That story ended with the return of the bourgeois constant that we had fought and won. I had to abandon, through no fault of my own, the creature I had helped to forge. In the early 1980s, things were starting to change. Actors arrived from the Continent and the group lost the spirit of its origins. It was difficult for me to continue that path. After that goodbye I cried for several weeks ”.

You were also a journalist at “Tuttoquotidiano”.

“Yes, from 1974 to 1978. I wrote many articles for the culture page with Vindice Ribichesu. Journalism taught me the art of communicating in an essential and direct way ".

With “Il Crogiuolo” you crossed the territories of literature, poetry and political theater, how demanding was this journey?

“Very challenging but also exhilarating. I developed my creativity and brought to the stage the texts of great authors such as Brecht, Rilke, Wedekind, Buchner, Pinter and Sardinian poets and writers such as Sini, Masala, Pintor and Dettori ”.

By Harold Pinter he proposed “The greenhouse”.

“To tell the truth I wanted to stage 'I calapranzi' but the lady who looked after the rights of his works in Italy said to me: 'Why always I calapranzi? There would also be The Greenhouse, a little represented work '. Thus was born the show that was presented at the Asti Festival, at the suggestion of Guido Davico Bonino. I remember the premiere at the Arco with the theatrical critics of the most important Italian newspapers ”.

Another first, the show “Dialogue” from an opera by Natalia Ginzburg also at the Arco. What do you remember of that moment?

“I shared that show with Carla Chiarelli and director Luca Coppola, a great talent who unfortunately no longer exists. At the first came Natalia Ginzburg ”.

Many travel companions.

"Rino Sudano, Marco Parodi, Franco Noè, Gianni Esposito, Tiziana Dattena, Francesco Origo, Bruno Venturi, Tino Petilli, Vito Biolchini, Rita Atzeri to whom I entrusted 'Il Crogiuolo', the momentum and the energies he puts on the field move me . We became friends with Petilli in 1976 during the rehearsal of 'Bertoldo a corte' at the Teatro delle Saline in Cagliari. We went to eat in a bar on Via della Pineta. I confided my pains of love to him, he listened to me and gave me advice ”.

How do your days unfold?

“I write books about my artistic life. I take care of the archive which reflects my lives as a theatrical and which has been recognized as being of national historical interest by the Superintendence. I like stage journalism and I would like to explore this horizon. I think that theater can draw lifeblood from the writers and journalists who have told about Italy. Low flight with three passwords: sleep, food, hugs. It is clear that hugs are the ones that warm my heart every time I go on stage ”.