Summer Vacation 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, the world sparkles and surges with extraordinary force through people, their conversations and everyday situations. Creating simple, authentic, convincing and accessible stories, Goldoni portrays human relationships from within, unfolding all their shades and turning them into a metaphor for the world itself. In the 18th century, clouded by uncertain prospects and steeped in inexplicable cruelty, there was a sense that Europe would soon undergo a turning point that would forever change the face of society. Goldoni is profoundly humane, able to surround people with love and warmth even as he fiercely criticises them. In work that transcends its time, the playwright captured the modern human condition and the worries that afflict it, and highlighted the importance of a woman’s character as she questioned her deeply rooted traditional role in society. His mastery is revealed to wonderful effect in the magnificent “Holiday Trilogy,” comprising three plays: “Summer Vacation Fever,” “The Holiday Adventures” and “Returning from the Holidays.” This autumn, director Gabrielė Tuminaitė will present the first part of the trilogy, “Summer Vacation Fever,” at the Vilnius Small Theatre. Livorno. The characters are feverishly preparing to leave for summer stays at villas in the countryside. At the centre of it all 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 limits, consumed by vanity. They hope that, once away at the villas, in 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 the abyss. As the characters continually swing between anxiety, jealousy, outbursts of anger and irritation, the pace of the play keeps building and its momentum rises to the point of madness. As if possessed by this mass evacuation, they leave their own homes—their theatre—littered, ransacked and devastated, and hurry elsewhere, somewhere “better,” hoping to become what they have been promised they can be: more talented, more beautiful and more widely recognised.