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?
