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. By creating simple, genuine, convincing and easily understood stories, Goldoni portrays human relationships from within, revealing them in all their shades and turning them into a metaphor for the world itself.

In the eighteenth century, clouded by uncertain prospects for the future and steeped in inexplicable cruelty, there was a sense that Europe would soon undergo a turning point that would permanently change the face of society. Goldoni is profoundly humane, able to surround people with love and warmth even when he criticises them fiercely. In his work, the playwright reached beyond his time to grasp the condition of modern people and the concerns that trouble them. He highlighted the importance of the character of a woman who questioned her entrenched traditional role in society. His mastery is revealed to outstanding effect in the magnificent “The Holiday Trilogy”, comprising three plays: “Summer Vacation Fever”, “Summer Vacation Adventures” and “Return from the Summer Vacation”.

This autumn, director Gabrielė Tuminaitė will present the first part of the trilogy, “Summer Vacation Fever”, at Vilniaus mažasis teatras. Livorno. The characters are feverishly preparing to leave for summer stays 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; the characters are gripped by vanity. They hope that, once they leave for the villas, in that magical “somewhere else”, they will fulfil themselves as people and the problems they are running from will resolve on their own. 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 are constantly tossed between anxiety, jealousy, outbursts of anger and irritation, the pace of the play keeps accelerating and its energy rises to the point of madness. As if possessed by this mass evacuation, they abandon their own homes—their theatre—littered, ransacked and devastated, and rush elsewhere, where things are “better”, hoping to become what they have been promised: more talented, more beautiful and more widely recognised.