Summer Holiday Fever

“The world is the book from which I have learned the most,” wrote Carlo Goldoni, one of the greatest masters of Italian drama. In his work, this world sparkles and surges with extraordinary force through people, their conversations and everyday situations. Creating simple, truthful, convincing and accessible stories, Goldoni portrays human relationships from the inside, unfolding them in all their shades and turning them into a metaphor for the world itself. In the 18th century, filled with uncertain prospects for the future and steeped in inexplicable cruelty, there was a sense that Europe would soon experience a turning point that would permanently change the face of society. Goldoni is profoundly humane, able to envelop people in love and warmth even while sharply criticising them. In his work, the playwright transcended his time, capturing the modern human condition and its concerns, and highlighting the importance of women who questioned their entrenched traditional role in society. His mastery is most fully revealed in the magnificent “Holiday Trilogy”, comprising three plays: “Summer Holiday Fever”, “The Holidaymakers’ Adventures” and “Back from the Holidays”. This autumn, director Gabrielė Tuminaitė will present the first part of the trilogy, “Summer Holiday Fever”, at Valstybinis Vilniaus mažasis teatras. Livorno. The characters are feverishly preparing to leave for summer holidays at country villas. At the centre is Leonardo’s jealousy of his fiancée Giacinta, who is also being courted by the young Guglielmo. In their desperate haste, they disregard both financial and moral constraints, consumed by vanity. They hope that once they leave for the villas, that magical “elsewhere”, they will fulfil themselves as people and the problems they are running from will resolve themselves. But it soon becomes clear that the problem lies much deeper: in their complete inability to manage their lives, which are hurtling at full speed towards an abyss. As the characters lurch between anxiety, jealousy, outbursts of anger and irritation, the pace never lets up; the action builds towards madness. As if possessed by this mass evacuation, they abandon their own homes—their theatre—littered, ransacked and ravaged, and rush elsewhere, where things are “better”, hoping to become what they have been promised: more talented, more beautiful and more widely recognised.