Vi ho amato fino alla fine
(Multimedia) Meditation on the Martyrdom of Saint Alexander

Directed by Oreste Castagna
with Nicola Stravalaci, Francesca Minutoli, Max Brembilla actors
Stefano Montanari, solo violin
with Enea Salmeggia Strings Ensemble
from an idea of Mario Bertasa

The existence of a group of friends is itself an extraordinary experience: getting together, meeting up, getting on with, making plans together. It infuses a special taste, an added value to everyday life. What can happen, then, to a group of friends when a guest who has come from far away explains them that this friendship is the sign of a Love even bigger, the hub to lever on to uproot evil from the world, to project a new city? This is the story of Fermo, Rustico, Grata, Esteria, Domnone, Eusebia. A group of young people from Bergamo of 1.600 years ago, noble and plebeian people, when Bergamo still was a small rural dwelling ruled by some families of Roman patricians. At the villa of one of them one day a stranger takes refuge, called Alessandro, a good giant with sharp-cut Aegyptian-arabic traits, who has got many stories to tell: thanks to his job he has lived in the Middle-East, in Jerusalem, in the Balkans, in Rome, in Gallia, in Switzerland: he is an official of the imperial army. And he has got troubles with military justice. He is a defector. One of the few survived the massacre, in the Valais, of his legion, the legendary Theban legion, that refused en masse to slaughter the peasants followers of Christ. «Christ? Who is he? Tell us about…». The news of Alexander preaching and of the conversion of Bergomum young people are soon acknowledged by Maximinian, the imperial vicar who got to the village in person to arrest him and have him decapitated. But do stories always end up this way? And big friendships as well? Sometimes the answer, dumb or stuttering to these questions, leaves in a shabby powerlessness sensation. What’s the meaning of making great plans on the destiny of our own world of affections, on the future of our own city? Anyway the challenge to search for a meaning urgently needed then can be the redepiction of a martyrdom through the poetic devices of contemporaneity, with formal expedients like an imaginary exchange of letters between Saint Alexander and Saint Grata, with communication means given by lighting and multivision technologies or by the interaction of acting and live music. However a meaning, if one loves till the end, despite the end.

On stage young professional great talented actors who have important job and educational experiences: Francesca Minutoli, graduated at Milan Accademia dei Filodrammatici with the golden medal, is an estimeed theatre actress; Nicola Stravalaci, graduated at Milan Accademia dei Filodrammatici, has interpreted many theatre shows and collaborates with many movie and TV productions- among which “Buona la prima” with Ale & Franz.