“Switch off the lights, let’s see the video of the performance” (being a film of a morning rehearsal), says Jacopo.

When the light goes back on again Adelino (senior) is tearing his hair out.

Damned video!

The filming, without editing and post-production, has shown all the mistakes, all the losses of rhythm, the comical scenes that aren’t funny because too slow, everything!

The video shows us everything!

Jacopo explains that it’s better this way, better to have filmed a bad rehearsal so that the errors and hiccups can be discussed.

So we watch the film again, stopping whenever necessary. The positions of the actors, the intonation of the lines, here you have to move further forward, here you have to continue moving, here you are too slow, here you have to give the idea of surprise, here you have to be angry, and so on…

“When you act” says Jacopo “you must be convinced that you are doctors, people who are ill, narrators.”

If the actor is convinced, just for the period of the performance, that he really is the character being taken onto the stage, his acting will be perfect, spontaneous.

Theatre is a game, but a very serious one!

We start again tomorrow.