March 13-April 18, 2010
Dialogue of A Prostitute With Her Client
Written by Dacia Maraini. Directed by Mark Kemble.
Starring Francesca Fanti & Eric Murdock.
Written in the 1970s by one of the most famous and loved writers of italian literature, Dacia Maraini, "Dialogue of A Prostitute With Her Client” explores the social plague of prostitution from a different angle.
It’s a journey through Manila’s (the prostitute’s) mind and also a fantasy, how she lives with her “occupation”, making it seem almost normal and matter of fact.
Manila plays tough and very independent to her client, she orders him around and shows no feelings until something happens that makes her realize how fragile and vulnerable she is. But there is one thing that keeps her sane and alive…
ABOUT
Manila is a matter-of-fact business woman. She provides a commodity for a fee. This isn't quite enough for her client, who likes to fantasize when he engages in sex. But Manila is also a woman of intellect, which means she is capable of some fantasizing of her own, and it is her fantasies which are the keys to her own fragility and vulnerability. Her business is not so simple afterall.
The revered Italian playwright, novelist, screenwriter, and essayist Dacia Maraini is famously a feminist, which means that her treatment of erotic themes extends way beyond the merely titillating. Prostitution provides a dramatic metaphor for various aspects in male-female relationships, including issues of power and domination, as well as the objectification and commercialization of women. Prostitutes have often been protagonists in popular narrative. Maraini goes beneath the surface of popular stereotype to give Manila a human face.
Dacia Maraini co-founded the Teatro del Porcospino and Teatro del Maddalena. Her other plays include, "Mary Stuart" "Crime at the Tennis Club", "The Dreams of Clytemnestra", "Mela", and "Stravaganza".
