'Leviathan' Arrives at Massimo: A Surreal Story Inspired by a News Story
'A surreal story inspired by a news event with 'Leviathan' by Riccardo Tabilio, starring Giulio Forges Davanzati, Alessia Sorbello, and Andrea Trovato, directed by Marco Di Stefano (produced by Dracma / Centro Sperimentale di Arti Sceniche, show by Compagnia Carmentalia and La Confraternita del Chianti, with the support of Network NdN - Teatro Libero Palermo - Teatro Stabile di Verona - Centro Teatrale MaMiMò - TRAC - AterlierSì) is on stage – regionally premiering – on Tuesday, March 11th at 8:30 pm at the Teatro Massimo in Cagliari for Il Terzo Occhio / multidisciplinary showcase of new creativities, then on Wednesday, March 12th at 9 pm at the Teatro Comunale in San Gavino Monreale, and on Thursday, March 13th at 8:30 pm at the Teatro “Antonio Garau” in Oristano as part of the Prosa 2024-2025 Season organized by CeDAC Sardegna.
An original and engaging show, with video scenography by Antonio Simone Giansanti and lighting design by Enzo Biscardi, musical preparation by maestro Attilio Costa, dramaturg Chiara Boscaro, and assistant director Cristina Campochiaro, with a title that references the successful novel by Paul Auster, for a reflection on human 'stupidity' and the Dunning-Kruger Effect, a cognitive distortion where individuals with low competence in a subject tend to overestimate their own knowledge and abilities, in the illusion of possessing particular skills and knowledge, with paradoxical and sometimes catastrophic consequences.
“Leviathan” (Show winner of the NdN 2020-2021 Call) narrates the misadventure of McArthur Wheeler, an American bank robber who, after an experiment with invisible ink, believed he had become invisible by rubbing lemon juice on his face: when the police in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, showed up at his door, the forty-four-year-old was dumbfounded. An emblematic episode about the inability to recognize one's own incompetence, from which David Dunning, professor of social psychology at Cornell University, and his student Justin Kruger drew the essay 'Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties of Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-assessments'.
A news story from the mid-1990s, reconstructed through journalistic sources and academic reports, provides the basis for a theatrical play where, as in Paul Auster's book (centered on the failed and tragic endeavor of Benjamin Sachs, an aspiring bomber fighting against the system), explores 'the story of a man alone amidst the ruins of post-industrial America – in the background, the watermark of the contemporary world'. To learn more, visit https://www.cagliaritoday.it/eventi/teatro/leviatano-teatro-massimo-cagliari-marzo-2025.html'
