Life ahead

Published in 1975 and adapted for the cinema in 1977, the subject of a controversial Goncourt Prize, Romain Gary's La vita davanti a sé (Life Ahead) is the story of Momò, a ten-year-old Arab boy who lives in the multi-ethnic Belleville neighbourhood, in the boarding house of Madame Rosa, an elderly former Jewish prostitute who now makes ends meet by looking after the 'work accidents' of her younger colleagues.

A touching and still topical novel about ramshackle lives going upside down, but also about an unlikely love story touched by grace. Silvio Orlando leads us inside the pages of the book with the lightness and irony of Momò, by becoming that child in his drama.

An authentic masterpiece 'for everyone' where emotion and fun chase each other breathlessly. Needless to say, Gary's genius has anticipated without easy ideologies and hasty solutions a crucial issue of today: the coexistence of different cultures, religions and lifestyles. The world suddenly appears small and claustrophobic; migration flows are grafted onto an economic crisis that seems to have become structural, especially in Europe, creating new and ancient fears, especially in the working classes, which are the least guaranteed ones.

If this is the situation, what function can and should the theatre have? Certainly not to point out ways and solutions that to date no one is able to provide, but once again to tell moving, funny stories, to call by name individuals who appear to us as an indistinct and distressing mass. Telling the story of Momo' and Madame Rosa in their desperate embrace against everything and everyone is both necessary and useful. The last words of Garay's novel should be a slogan and a compass in these years where compassion is in danger of becoming a luxury for the few: WE NEED TO BE GOOD.

LA VITA DAVANTI A SE’ 
adapted from “La Vie Devant a soi” by ROMAIN GARY Emile Ajar 
© Mercure de France, theatrical rights managed by Gallimard Editions under the name of 'Roman Gary' as author of the original work 

Musical Direction Simone Campa

live music

set design Roberto Crea 

light design Valerio Peroni 

costume design Piera Mura 

assistant director Maria Laura Rondanini 

stage director Luigi Flammia

sound engineer Gianrocco Bruno

administration Teresa Rizzo

reduction and direction by SILVIO ORLANDO