Stjepàn or What Happened After the Murder - Armando Rotondi - Italy - CLASH 2022 Lacuna Festivals
Channel: Lacuna Festivals
Date: 2022-06-30

Micro PodPlay | Recorded Sound & Radio Drama 04:35

"Stjepàn or What Happened After the Murder"
A podplay monologue written and directed by Armando Rotondi
Read and performed by Freya Treutmann
Inspired by the character of Stjepàn Pelaghèjuskin
from "The Forged Coupon" by Leo Tolstoy
Produced by Ad Est del Mondo and IDEA - Idea Cultura

"Stjepàn or What Happened After the Murder" is short podplay, created as a reflection or as a re-reflection on the character of  Stjepàn Pelaghèjuskin from "The Forged Coupon" by Leo Tolstoy. In a experimental theatre staging of the "The Forged Coupon" in 2017, the work ended at the moment of the murder of Maria committed by Stjepàn. After 4 years, in the middle of the pandemic/lockdowns and with limited resources (evident in the recording, but we wanted to prioritise the content on that occasion), I felt the need to continue the story of Stjepàn and investigate what happened in his soul. Working with the same actress who interpreted the role in 2017, Freya Treutmann, the understaning of Stjepàn became a short monologue, in which the different souls of Stjepàn overlap and naturally clash, as the feeling of the actress in re-interpreting the role clash (in a metatheatrical way). Redemption, rage, consciousness clash and fight with each other, as it happens in the human being soul. Who is Stjepàn Pelaghèjuskin? And how can he lives with this sorrow? How can he fits again in a reality that is corrupted - as the forged coupon that destroyed his life in 2016 staging - but at the same time refuses him?