Anna Della Rosa: «I bring women to the nth degree on stage»

TO Milan has a highly motivated group of ladies (yes, mostly ladies go to the theater) who doesn’t miss a show if their name is on the bill. “Really? I knew it! I have a group from La Spezia who come to visit me in the dressing room almost everywhere, they spend hours in the car, but they are amateur actors…”. Anna Della Rosa she is happily surprised to have a female fan club that recognizes itself in her and the characters she brings to the stage.

“I was a good horsewoman”

«Perhaps we women are more open, more flexible, more curious. We have a greater willingness to get excited » she ventures. Of course, she doesn’t leave her admirers’ diaries unguarded for long: until March 21st he is on tour with Antony and Cleopatra (which will resume in June); from 6 April to 5 May he will be in Milan with Duringsecond act of the triptych designed by Pascal Rambert for the Piccolo; from 14th to 19th at Elfo Puccini in The Angel of Kobane, a monologue by Henry Naylor. It’s not enough: in micro-scraps of time it resumes Accabadorafrom the novel by Michela Murgia.

«But this summer I will rest: I will travel, I will read, I will see films and exhibitions. And I will ride: I was a good rider, although I didn’t compete. The horse is a creature that gives me joy” he explains Della Rosa, who looks younger than the proudly declared 46 years of age (a wonderful exception in an environment where revealing one’s age is taboo). «Unfortunately, I can’t practice yoga as much as I would like. Ah, are they in shape? Well, this Cleopatra is challenging: wild dancing, Dance of the Seven Veils style.”

Art and life companions

Do you dance? Which Cleopatra is she?
A creature that is both carnal and spiritual at the same time. The work mixes many genres and Shakespeare (it’s my first Shakespeare!) described it as unpredictable: I love the freedom, the madness of it! The direction (by Valter Malostihis partner in art and life, who has the role of Antonio, ed) brings out this versatility well: now it is tragic, now comical; now seductress, now child in love; now tender, now ruthless tyrant… A woman to the nth degree, who makes every feeling an explosion. Embodying these two magnificent, exhilarating madmen with Valter is bliss.

“Made of love”

And who will be in During of Rambert?
An actress deeply linked to a man and the company with which she has worked for years. Her name is Anna (Pascal always uses the name of the interpreter for whom she imagined her character), she is “made of love”. She has dedicated her life to love: “What else to do?”, I ask myself on stage and, perhaps, in real life… In the play we move in a limbo between reality and fiction while we stage a representation based on Battle of San Romano by Paolo Uccello, are surprising and very touching Chinese boxes.

From Accabadora – about the adopted daughter of an accabadora, someone who takes on the responsibility of practicing euthanasia – we know from Murgia’s bestseller.
Michela was splendid! In the text – adapted by Carlotta Corradi – there are lines that the director, Veronica Cruciani, wanted in Sardinian and she was very generous, she dedicated hours to me at her house in Rome: she listened to me, corrected me and recorded the exact pronunciation for me .

“I dream of pure comedy”

The Angel of KobaneInstead?
It is about the siege of Kobane by ISIS in 2014 and the resistance of the Kurds. She tells of a girl, a pacifist, who studies to be a lawyer because she has faith in the law and in resolving conflicts with rationality, but she is overwhelmed by events and is forced to take up the Kalashnikov.

Never comedies, eh?
This Antony and Cleopatra it has a lfunny part: there are three scenes in which the audience actually laughs. And we laughed inside The holiday trilogy by Goldoni, directed by Toni Servillo in 2007: thanks to him my path got off to a decisive start. Then there were a couple of Molières (The imaginary patient And The misanthrope), and also the triptych Three Lai by Giovanni Testori mixes the tragic and the comic… However, I admit: I would like a pure comedy. These are strings that I have, I’m quite cheerful. Cleopatra’s vocation to play, for example, is something that corresponds to me.

Do you look for similarities with the characters?
They represent a starting point, the anchor from which to begin. Immediately afterwards, I widen my gaze. Toni taught me this: “Observe outside yourself who has something that can belong to your Giacinta”. In human beings, or in the protagonist of a film, of a novel… Ours is not a profession exclusively aimed at the self, narcissistic, but full of curiosity towards the outside. And, of course, I have the writing to call upon, the words are my guide, they command the rhythm.

“The great beauty”

After Servillo, the list of masters is long. The most valuable lessons?
Peter Stein, who I did with Penthesilea (my “baptism”, in 2002) e Medea, taught me a discipline and a depth in which I believe very much: it invites you to study-study-read-reread-reread the text continuously. This also applies to life: it takes patience, it takes care, it takes precision. Peter embodies a seriousness that is very precious to me.

And Rambert, of whom she is a sort of “Italian muse”?
He demands rigor yet gives freedom, and he is an extremely grateful person: I remember when, in 2012, we were rehearsing Cloture of love with Luca Lazzareschi, he brought fresh fruit from the market and repeated to us: “I’m here and I’m happy, I’m fine and you’re good.” We need to realize the good things, underline them, share with simplicity.

Buddhist, by any chance?
(laughs) No, he’s a poet. Valter was also fundamental: he transmits sweetness, serenity, the value of kindness, allowing you to offer the best. Sandro Lombardi, a great actor who for Herodias And Mater strangoscias he let me in on his secrets. And there is Massimo Popolizio, an emblem of intensity (he gives himself one hundred percent every evening) and irony. In Blackbird he helped me, it’s like playing tennis with a champion. Actually no, in tennis you are rivals…

Does cinema interest you?
A lot, even though I haven’t practiced it much: it was exhilarating to shoot The great beauty (she was Carlo Verdone’s girlfriend, ed) and I would gladly face new experiences. But I couldn’t give up the stage: the emotion, the warmth, the communication with colleagues and with the audience is something priceless. The “carnal” aspect is very necessary, irreplaceable. All this virtuality that storms us dehydrates you, the theater hydrates you.

“Watching ghosts”

What is acting for you?
Living to the nth degree, sharing with the spectators a… hmmm… better world. Rich, full, bright, with a lot of wonder.

Was there an episode in your childhood from which you could predict your future?
Not whether it’s legend or truth (but in family stories legend and truth mix…): it seems that my beloved grandmother Olga, when I was born – I was skinny and moved my little hands a lot – said: “This one will become comedian!”. But I had my first intuition at the Casa degli Squirrels.

At the Squirrel House?
(smiles) I’m from Milan but every summer – from the age of 4 to 14 – I spent a month in this Kinderheim in Trentino: among the various activities, little shows were created. And I was at ease, serene. I felt at home. And I continue to feel peaceful: the stage is a place of well-being. Actors are problematic, they have some internal “troubleness”, yet on stage they melt away and that “twistiness” of yours is material to nourish the text.

Would you call it “resolved”?
I seem to have found – I say this with superstition, actors are superstitious beasts – a balance and, if it falters, I seem to know how to manage anxiety. The analysis helped me to have a compass in case of a “storm”, external or internal. Are you being retaken by your ghosts? You look at their faces, recognize them, shake their hands and do a waltz with them.

Speaking of dance: in addition to acting schools (those of Grock, the Civica Paolo Grassi), he studied dance…
Yes a little bit. It helps me give substance to different bodies in the most precise and, therefore, most communicative way possible. In the theatre, my physical insecurities – I am a woman, I suffer the aesthetic social pressure of having to be beautiful and smooth always and forever – evaporate! The laceration between body, mind and heart, typical of our culture, heals and heart-mind-body are an expressive whole: three planets that align and produce sparks.

Fade

Fade. A few days later an email arrives. Sender: Anna Della Rosa.

«I would like to try to better explain my generic and very misunderstandable expression “better world”! For me, acting is giving life to a more alive world, which alters the audience’s breathing and touches them. The sacred text is the map for the journey, the magic formula that opens the doors of mysterious rooms – nocturnal or flooded with neon light or the glow of fire – capable of astonishment. There is so much childhood in the theater for me, the actors on stage play together outside the time that presses us towards the end to give life to that mysterious suspended time in which all of us, actors and spectators, are free. And fully alive. Theater is the place of imagination, of boundless possibilities, of knowledge. Of enjoyment.”

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