Fanny & Alexander

Fanny & Alexander – Biographical note

edited by Alice Fadda
Chiara Lagani and Luigi De Angelis founded the company ‘Fanny&Alexander’ in 1992, in the corridors of the Classical Lycée Dante Alighieri, in Ravenna. Chiara recalls: «Luigi attended Emma Montanari’s theatre workshops in the lycée we both went to. One day I told Luigi I wanted him to read a text I had written. After some time he came and said: “Come on, let’s do it”. So it all started, like a game, I never thought I’d do theatre in my life».
Lagani and De Angelis have always preferred to define their group an Art Studio rather than a theatre group, «in the sense that was given to the term in the Renaissance, when persons of all origins gathered in the studio, helping the growth and exchange of ideas». The name Fanny&Alexander was inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s famous film, for the many themes present in the Swedish director’s work: childhood against the world of adults, life and death, life and art, theatre, and also for Bergman’s definition of his film: «a huge tapestry where each one can see what he likes to see».
F&A conducted an experimental research theatre, that went from Bergman to Shakespeare, Chekhov, Carroll, Collodi, Gozzano, Nabokov, and to Marina Cvetaeva, Giorgio Manganelli, Carmelo Bene, Guido Ceronetti, Baum and Lawrence.