ITALY: Although the Irish critic Vivian Mercier famously described it as a two-act play where "nothing happens . . . twice", an Italian production of Waiting for Godot has been having a rather busier time off-stage, writes Barbara McMahon in Rome
Lawyers representing Samuel Beckett's estate, known for its iron grip on the playwright's works, objected to the use of female actors in the two main roles of Vladimir and Estragon, issuing an injunction against the theatre in Pontedera, Tuscany, to try to stop the performances.
The director and cast ignored the legal challenge, continuing the run of the play, and a court in Rome has now supported their position. It ruled this week that men did not have a monopoly on the roles, at least on this occasion.
The theatre company's lawyer, Maurizio Fritelli, hailed the decision as a victory for civil liberties. "The sentence is valuable, not just from the technical point of view of the interpretation of the law," he said.
"It reiterates that men and women have equal rights, given that it still seems necessary to point this out."
Lawyers for L'Agenzia Teatrale D'Arborio, which holds the rights to Beckett's works in Italy, and the Society of French Authors, had claimed that the playwright would have been unhappy about the use of women in his play about two tramps who wait in vain by a roadside for the arrival of Godot.
They said that, before his death in 1989, the Nobel Literature prizewinner had objected to previous attempts to use women in the production. They also cited a ruling in Paris in 1992, when a director was refused permission to use female leads after a judge said it was "violation of Beckett's moral rights".
The Pontedera theatre counter-claimed, saying that although sisters Luisa and Silvia Pasello were playing the parts, the characters remained totally male. There had been no attempt to alter Beckett's work, they said.
The actors are near-identical twins and were cast after two male actors who were originally cast pulled out of the production.
The theatre company showed the court a clause in its contract with the Beckett estate which said that if performers could not continue in the roles, it was permitted to change them. The clause does not mention the sex of the performers.
Director Robert Bacci said he was pleased the Pontedera theatre had won its case and called the legal challenge absurd. He said: "Silvia and Luisa look like men on stage and I chose them because they have played male roles before. We have used the text in its entirety and have in all other ways remained completely faithful to Beckett's work. We have followed his stage instructions down to the tiniest detail."
He said he had invited Edward Beckett, the playwright's nephew, to see the production before deciding if it was acceptable, but he had refused.