Review: MY BRILLIANT FRIEND/MIN FANTASTISKA VÄNINNA at Stadsteatern

My Brilliant Friend is based on Elena Ferrante's series about Elena (Lenù) and Lila's friendship. The books were an international success when they were published but I haven't read them. Started on the first one wasn't my cup of tea The play is made by April De Angelis and is about 3 hours and 30 minutes long. It also feels long and would have benefited from being shortened in order to get more nerve in it. Some parts felt extended with no purpose. 

The friendship of Lenù (Maja Rung) and Lila (Nina Zanjani) is followed from 1950 to 2010 in Italy. A journey through time where the fashion and dance styles skilfully move the action forward. The trick of having the same actors portray the characters as children and adults leads to them overacting as children. The angular, unnatural movement pattern gives the feeling of children's cartoons. The overplay partially grinds away as they age, but remains when it's supposed to be emotional and I'm not moved. It also creates a strange, uncomfortable dynamic when there is such a big age difference between some of the male actors and they portray the same age as the young Lenù and Lilas. The older they get, the more they grow together, mainly because the women wear make-up and dress older, but nothing has been done to make the men look younger. They look the same age all the time. Regardless of acting talent or not, it doesn't come off right and it doesn't feel believable. You understand what age they are supposed to be, but the emotional involvement, touch and presence is not there.

The friendship between Lenù and Lila is complex, their lives are out of balance pretty much all the time, an unhealthy competition and dependence on each other. Women from different social classes fighting against a male-dominated world where virtually all men are unsympathetic, regardless of whether they belong to the Camorra or are intellectuals. The male genius is celebrated and allowed to behave however he likes, but the women are only allowed to flourish in time for the family. It will be a clear depiction of the role of women in a male world, but where unfortunately the women do not support each other but contribute to it. I find it hard to sympathize with any of them and it is quite a gloomy and dark play.

With the strong right-wing winds blowing again in Italy and the rest of Europe, it will be a reminder of the fascist era and it feels right in time that it is being played now again. But I wish I had been more touched and involved in Lenù and Lila's life.

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