• Concept, Direction, Lighting, Sound Design: Luigi De Angelis
• Dramaturgy, Costumes: Chiara Lagani With: Andrea Argentieri
• Linguistic and Phonetic Consultation: Gabriella Gruder-Poni, David Salvage
• Promotion and Communication: Maria Donnoli
• Organization: Maria Donnoli, Marco Molduzzi
• Administration: Stefano Toma, Marco Molduzzi
• Production: E Production/Fanny & Alexander In collaboration with: Olinda / Teatro La Cucina

Year : 2023

Service : Sound design, soundtrack and Lighting design

Andrea Argentieri, in Fanny & Alexander’s production, steps into the role of the accused. Drawing from video and audio testimonies and numerous interviews Manson gave during his life, he embodies a mimetic portrayal of his character. Through the varied hyperbole of the responses, we navigate the labyrinthine, histrionic, slippery, and manipulative mind of Charles Manson. The rhythms, fragmented gestures, and shifting gazes of the character imprint themselves on the actor’s voice and body, as if, for a moment, we are confronted by a ghost visiting us just as we are about to render judgment.

The performance places the audience in the uncomfortable role of a posthumous jury. In an immersive, sonically dark, nightmarish atmosphere, sudden, sharp, rhythmic phrases evoke a narrative and sensory reanimation of events. It feels as if, for a moment, we are inside the infamous murder villa, surrounded by the crunching steps of the assassins, trapped in their getaway car amid screams and screeching brakes, immersed in hippie chants at the notorious Ranch where the Family practiced its rites, or inside the bustling courtroom where Manson was tried. Only at the end of this spectral reconstruction does one notice a real presence in the room—a silent witness facing away from the audience since the beginning. This man turns, approaches, and repeatedly invites the audience to ask him questions. It is Manson himself, here, before us. The audience selects from a list of 32 questions provided upon entering the theater and then, individually and voluntarily, addresses their chosen question to the actor, who now responds in English, with subtitles.

Gradually, and almost imperceptibly, the relentless questioning transforms the audience’s perception: Is it merely about judging and condemning this strange, ambiguous character’s actions? Or does it also involve us—our repulsion or indecipherable attraction to this macabre case and the deceptive, oblique words we are hearing? Will we have the capacity to illuminate the dark landscape of meanings, to read the black, unreadable book of signification and the manipulative refractions of discourse? Can we break through the reflective wall of our desire to know, our need to see, and obtain one detail after another, endlessly? What are we really seeking? What, ultimately, are we watching?

An Incarnate Tape Recorder: Notes on Manson

By Luigi Noah De Angelis

In Manson by Fanny & Alexander, Andrea Argentieri mimetically portrays Charles Manson, reflecting the character’s labyrinthine, histrionic, and manipulative traits. Using archival material, especially audio and video interviews, the actor adopts Manson’s rhythms, fragmented gestures, and shifting gazes, transforming into a presence that challenges the audience’s judgment in a posthumous trial setting.

“I have nothing against any of you. I cannot judge any of you. But I think it’s time for all of you to look at yourselves and judge the lies you live in.

You are not you; you are reflections, reflections of everything you think you know, of everything you have been taught.”

—Charles Manson, trial statement

Objectives:

• Move beyond judgment.
• Avoid binary polarities: good/evil, guilty/innocent.
• Stay focused on Manson’s presence—his voice and body, his “think chamber.”
• Through repeated listening, allow the voice’s wounds to permeate.
• Observe the “body” of this voice and its gestures.
• Witness Manson’s spectral reappearance as a symptom, reflecting on the audience’s role in judgment.
• Engage with how Manson’s message resonates today.
• Structure the show in two parts: the prosecution’s essence and Manson’s unfiltered self-defense.
• Remove the comforting frame of theater; make Manson’s presence felt in the present.
• Encourage the audience to witness, question, and take a stance.

Premiered: Mercurio Festival, Palermo — September 23, 2023

Debut: Olinda / Teatro La Cucina, Milan — September 29-30, 2023

Future Performances:

Festival Approdi, Trieste — June 21, 2024

Festival Inequilibrio, Vada — July 6, 2024

Short Theatre, Rome — September 7-8, 2024

Festival Le Città Visibili, Rimini — September 10, 2024

Galleria Toledo, Naples — December 7-8, 2024

Teatro delle Moline, Bologna — January 15-19, 2025

Teatro Rasi, Ravenna — January 30 – February 1, 2025

Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louise Virginia Smith, also known as Bricktop, was an American dancer, jazz singer, vaudeville artist, and the owner of the famous concert venue Chez Bricktop in Paris. The venue became a landmark for both French and African American artists who had moved to Paris to escape the systemic racism and constant denial of humanity they faced in America. Through the story of Bricktop and her interviews, soprano Claron McFadden and pianist Claire Chevallier recreate the vibrant atmosphere of the interwar period in Paris, when jazz arrived from America and began to merge with the French musical repertoire. Director Luigi De Angelis conceived Chez Bricktop as a live radio program, evoking the ambiance of a club from a hundred years ago, with a live audience and special guests in real time.

“When Claron McFadden asked me to collaborate on Chez Bricktop, I was immediately struck by the strong connection she had developed with Claire Chevallier. It was a brilliant web of links between the past and the present, an incredible journey through their sensitivity and the stories of today that resonate and challenge the shadows and ghosts of the past. They asked me to recreate the atmosphere of Ada ‘Bricktop’ Smith’s club, leaving open windows through which they could speak about their own journey and intimate ‘renaissance,’ and how they were approaching the history of jazz—the music that had so strongly influenced their artistic path.I conceived Chez Bricktop as a live radio program, with Claron McFadden as the host, in dialogue with Claire at the piano, creating an overlap between the atmosphere of a club from 100 years ago and a modern radio studio, where a live broadcast unfolds with an audience all around, live music, guests, etc. The dramaturgy of a musical broadcast offers a lot of freedom and the possibility to move quickly from the present to the past in a kaleidoscopic and engaging journey.” (Luigi De Angelis)

DEBUT:

March 9, 2024, 15:00 and 20:20 – Klarafestival, Bozar, Brussels (BE)May 23, 2024, 20:00 – Toneelhuis, Bourlaschouwburg, Antwerp (BE)

Charles Manson on Trial: The Audience Questions Him in the Theater

By Laura Zangarini | Corriere della Sera, September 27, 2023

“Manson” will be on stage September 29 and 30 at Teatro LaCucina in Milan before going on tour. Director Luigi De Angelis describes it as “an exploration of the perverse fascination with evil.”

Manipulative, histrionic, labyrinthine. Charles Manson—mastermind behind some of the most heinous crimes in American history, including the Cielo Drive massacre where actress Sharon Tate, the pregnant wife of director Roman Polanski, was stabbed 16 times, and the LaBianca murders—stands at the center of Fanny & Alexander’s latest creation. The company, led by Chiara Lagani and Luigi De Angelis, has been a daring force in contemporary theater for over two decades. “Manson is part of a series of ‘mimetic portraits’ that began with ‘If This Is Levi,’ dedicated to the works of the Turin writer Primo Levi,” explains De Angelis. “The concept is to ‘summon’ Manson’s figure and place the audience in the uncomfortable role of a ‘posthumous jury.’”

The director elaborates: “We worked with two texts: Manson in His Own Words by journalist Nuel Emmons, and Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi, the prosecutor who secured Manson’s death sentence (later commuted to life imprisonment; Manson died on November 19, 2017).” Numerous interviews remain in which Manson crafted an image of himself as an outsider observing the system from prison—from the “underworld.” “This perspective offers rich theatrical possibilities to explore.”

The show, starring Ubu Award-winning actor Andrea Argentieri, opens as a horror radio drama, recounting the murders committed by the “Manson Family”, the cult led by this icon of evil.

“At the end of this sonic and narrative reconstruction, Manson is ‘summoned’ to answer audience questions,” the director notes. During his trial, although Manson had a court-appointed lawyer, he chose to defend himself, stating: “I am only what you have made me. I am your reflection.” De Angelis reflects, “This is an intriguing statement because it ties into the mechanics of theater, which always mirrors reality.”

Manson’s story raises profound questions about evil and its dark allure. “There is a deep narcissism in his courtroom responses; even manipulation has a creative dimension.” How disturbing is it to engage with evil? De Angelis concludes, “We retained the English language for this confrontation with Manson’s figure. Engaging with his voice is certainly not an innocent act.”

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The Audience Puts Charles Manson on Trial

By Sara Chiappori | La Repubblica, September 29, 2023

On the night of August 9, 1969, four followers of Charles Manson’s cult broke into Roman Polanski’s home on Cielo Drive, Los Angeles. The massacre left six people dead, including the young Sharon Tate, Polanski’s partner, who was eight months pregnant. While Quentin Tarantino rewrote history with a happy ending in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Charles Manson’s dark shadow continues to loom, feeding a sinister and sticky collective imagination. It is from this perspective that Fanny & Alexander conceived and developed the play Manson, created by Chiara Lagani and directed by Luigi De Angelis (today and tomorrow at Teatro La Cucina, former Paolo Pini hospital, Via Ippocrate 75, 8:30 PM, tickets €15/10, tel. 0266200646).

The production is a complex device that implicates the audience, placing them in the uncomfortable role of a posthumous jury. Immersed in total darkness, spectators experience a narrative and sensory exhumation of events, as if transported to the Cielo Drive villa: the crunch of footsteps on gravel, screams, blows, screeching brakes, and hippy songs blend with sharp phrases against the backdrop of a case that transcended mere news and scandal.

At the end of this reconstruction, Manson, portrayed by Andrea Argentieri, directly addresses the audience, urging them to ask him questions selected from a list of 32 provided upon entry. Thus, the performance’s structure varies, designed to expose the intertwined ambiguities at play. On trial are not only Charles Manson and his diabolical criminal mind; perhaps we, too, are on trial. Confronted with the manipulative dangers of language and the perilous oscillation between repulsion and morbid fascination, the audience is invited to reflect deeply.

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Charles Manson in Milan: When Evil Challenges the Jury of Spectators, by Diego Vincenti | Il Giorno, September 30, 2023

An unprecedented theatrical jury challenges Charles Manson: the audience receives a list of thirty-two questions to pose to the defendant. A feverish monologue by Fanny & Alexander at TeatroLaCucina di Olinda.

Deep darkness. Dense. Little can be discerned of what might be in front of us. Instead, it feels like an immersive siege of sounds and noises. An acoustic habitat that envelops stories verging on nightmares: murder, escape, strange hippie horizons. Gradually, something takes shape. One starts to realize that the man seated in the shadows is none other than “Manson,” the protagonist tonight and tomorrow of a feverish monologue by Fanny & Alexander. A prestigious national premiere hosted by TeatroLaCucina di Olinda. The event is set for 8:30 PM at the former Paolo Pini Hospital, part of the “Milano è Viva” program. A powerful title, presented by one of the most influential theater groups of the past twenty years (and more). The play is penned by Chiara Lagani, with direction, lighting, and a crucial sound design by Luigi De Angelis. The rest lies in the hands of Andrea Argentieri, the mysterious solo performer.

This Charles Manson challenges a unique theatrical jury, inviting each spectator to question him. Indeed, the audience receives a list of thirty-two questions upon entry, choosing at their discretion. The “defendant” answers in English (with subtitles), drawing heavily on solid dynamics of manipulation. In the end, a judgment—a sentence—must be reached. But after conversing with the devil, one might walk away with ideas a bit muddled.

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Who Is the Monster? The Reflection of Evil According to Manson, by Lucrezia Ercolani | Il Manifesto, October 1, 2023

A public tribunal in the latest performance by Fanny & Alexander is detailed by actor Andrea Argentieri. The participatory mechanism, the fascination and repulsion, emotional engagement, and the suspension of judgment.

Some figures compel us to take a stance—not just inevitably, but necessarily—as if passing judgment helps safeguard our values and humanity. This is certainly true of Charles Manson, a character needing little introduction. Yet this wasn’t Andrea Argentieri’s approach. The actor, from the Fanny & Alexander company, portrayed the infamous criminal-guru in Manson, recently performed at Teatro LaCucina, housed in the former Paolo Pini Psychiatric Hospital in Milan.

“I realized that the only way to approach him and go beyond the ‘Manson myth’ was to suspend judgment, to truly become a conduit. After all, that’s the actor’s mission: to convey the need inherent in a voice, whatever it may be. Everyone can judge him—except me,” Argentieri explains. Indeed, the performance, directed by Luigi De Angelis with dramaturgy by Chiara Lagani, aims to reach a “verdict.” The audience itself questions Manson, taking turns to read from a list of pre-prepared questions, acting as a jury. This participatory mechanism gives spectators control over the performance’s progression. The responses are drawn from Manson’s actual words in various interviews.

What stands out is the mix of lucidity and madness—sharp reflections on society’s mechanisms juxtaposed with savagery and delusions of grandeur, alternating in an indistinguishable blur. “The question is: Why were so many people fascinated by this figure despite his crimes? Manson often spoke of a ‘reflection’: ‘You see in me the evil within yourselves; I’m how you recognize your darkness, yet you label me the monster,’ he said. This is a compelling theme for theater, which must reflect the entirety of human nature.”

This mirroring of evil is the performance’s core, leading to a self-examination that leaves us uneasy, pushing beyond our instinctive rejection. Manson, after all, was also a product of his context: drug-addicted parents, a childhood spent on the streets and in reform schools, theft, dealing, and prison—all culminating in the formation of the “Family” and its fervent devotion.

Society’s distortions shaped this character, who can’t be excused for his actions but still forces us to ask: How does the world’s structural violence affect us? “It becomes a mutual investigation,” says Argentieri, who adopted an “Actors Studio” approach to embody Manson, even working with a coach to master his Ohioan inflection. The performance is entirely in English. Through his headphones, Argentieri hears Manson’s own voice guiding his responses—a technique of “controlled possession,” long used by the company.

Argentieri previously undertook a similar mimetic process for Se questo è Levi, a project dedicated to writer Primo Levi, which earned him the Ubu Award as Best Performer Under 35. In that piece, the audience also questioned Levi, but the emotional tone was quite different. “When I play Levi, there’s a sense of warmth; how could one not resonate with his Shoah testimony? With Manson, it’s different—fear and fascination intertwine.”

The venue’s significance is notable. At the former Paolo Pini Hospital, echoes of the past still resonate between its pavilions and pale blue-tiled walls. The theater—managed since 1998 by the Olinda association, which also supports employment and social opportunities for those with mental health challenges—occupies what was once the hospital kitchen. The complexity of the human mind is undeniably central to Manson, almost a personification of Jung’s Shadow. “We don’t live in the same reality,” Argentieri reflects in one scene, a statement that carries weight in this setting. The psyche’s role in both the character and the actor’s journey on stage is a topic of deep interest for him.

Manson is set to leave the Paolo Pini. In January, it will play at Angelo Mai in Rome, followed by a tour.

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Charles Manson: Fanny & Alexander in the Labyrinths of Crime, by Vincenzo Sardelli | KLP – Krapp’s Last Post, October 3, 2023

Charles Manson (Cincinnati, 1934 – Bakersfield, 2017) was one of history’s most notorious criminals. In his early 30s, he founded a cult within a hippie commune in the late 1960s, attracting young followers willing to commit heinous acts for him. Among the most brutal crimes was the August 1969 Los Angeles murder of actress Sharon Tate, the 25-year-old wife of Roman Polanski, who was massacred in her home along with three guests and an 18-year-old boy. Sharon was eight months pregnant.

Although Manson did not personally commit the murders, his followers acted like automatons under his command. His trial led to a death sentence, later commuted to life imprisonment when California abolished the death penalty. Manson became a media phenomenon due to his mix of brilliance and madness, beauty and curse—a criminal mind so magnetic that he could even manipulate jurors.

Manson’s story has captivated the arts, inspiring books, films, and TV shows. Bringing it to the stage, however, is a different challenge. The Romagna-based Fanny & Alexander company approaches this complex figure with introspection and curiosity, avoiding simplifications or clichés. After a preview at Palermo’s Mercurio Festival, Manson officially premiered at Teatro LaCucina in Milan, hosted by Olinda in the former Paolo Pini Psychiatric Hospital. This austere venue, steeped in a history of pain and madness, is a fitting setting for a narrative drenched in acid, crime, and blood.

In this place, haunted by the specters of isolation and insanity, we encounter Manson in darkness. He had a harsh upbringing, never knowing his father, while his mother, a prostitute, gave birth to him at 16. His “education” consisted of sex, hallucinogens, music, escapes, and violence, leading to reform schools and prison. He worshipped Satan yet adored the Beatles, proclaimed himself both Christ and Antichrist. A guru, philosopher, musician, and madman—fascinated by Hitler yet predicting a bizarre race war between Blacks and whites.

Rather than an actor narrating Manson’s biography, cold white text on a black background unfolds his story. Amid palpable darkness, words crafted by Chiara Lagani stand stark and raw. The lighting is cold; Luigi De Angelis’ chilling sound design and direction create a dystopian atmosphere with screams, breaking glass, gunshots, and grinding metal. Amidst this sonic landscape, dreamlike melodies emerge—bells and carillons weaving through the cacophony.

The dramaturgy oscillates between psychedelic fury and raw purity, swirling through extremes. The lights blaze cold as the audience steps into the role of participants. A gaunt man appears—disheveled hair and beard, skeletal stare. Andrea Argentieri embodies a schizoid mix of violent outbursts and facial contortions. His language is frantic, alternating between torrents of words (in English with surtitles), monosyllabic restraint, and contemplative silence.

As spectators, we are judges, psychiatrists, reporters, sociologists—or perhaps just voyeurs. Equipped with a list of 30 questions, we form a jury, interrogating Manson. His sharp intellect exposes our accusations, turning them back on our moral pretensions. Emotionally hollow yet logically piercing, Manson entertains and wounds, revealing the darkness within us. He isn’t a monstrous caricature but a mirror reflecting our hidden aberrations. Seeking a culprit, we measure our own distance from integrity. Manson is a fallen angel in the labyrinth of our perversions.

Argentieri’s performance is mesmerizing, especially his unblinking eyes—a sinister, piercing gaze that seems to read minds and lock onto our consciousness. We might escape, but we’re paralyzed, transfixed by those hallucinatory eyes.

Manson’s rhythmic, poetic monologues evoke echoes of Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti, Baudelaire, and Verlaine. With raw intensity, he decries consumerism, mass culture, and a degraded existence—expressing disgust and rebellion. It’s a journey through madness and defiance, echoing Ginsberg’s famous Howl: “Rebel against governments and God. Change is absolute. Think for yourself. The universe is subjective; the mind is vast. Honesty ends paranoia.”

In this labyrinth, we seek a monster to destroy—only to tragically find it lurking within ourselves.

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Questions to Ask a Psychopath, by Magda Poli | Corriere della Sera, October 5, 2023

The stage’s darkness is eerily pierced by sounds—murmurs, screams, groans, notes, footsteps—before being illuminated by stark white captions narrating the life of Charles Manson. This figure inspired his young followers to commit horrific crimes, the most infamous being the 1969 Cielo Drive massacre, where actress Sharon Tate, Roman Polanski’s wife, and four friends were brutally murdered.

Then, a shadowy figure emerges: the life-sentenced man, portrayed skillfully and with great dedication by Andrea Argentieri in Manson, a play in English (with surtitles) by Chiara Lagani and Luigi De Angelis of the Fanny & Alexander company. It’s one of their “mimetic portraits,” where oral sources, videos, and interviews enable the performer to deeply embody the character.

At the entrance, the audience receives 35 questions to pose to Manson, and the interaction begins. But how much do we really want to delve into the mental and emotional dynamics of a psychopathic, malevolent narcissist and manipulative pervert who bends others to his dark will? The experience leaves you contemplating how every mind might harbor a bit of Manson’s essence. At the same time, it hints at glimpses of a possible societal breakdown.

This production tells a familiar story with remarkable intensity and inventive performance.

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The Night of the Premiere, by Matteo Marelli | FilmTV, October 11, 2023

[…] The actor. The role. The act. The crime scene. These are just a few of the terms we can use to describe what happens in both theatrical and judicial contexts. A semantic ambiguity that dates back to Ancient Greece, when the theater and the courtroom were both part of the agora, the center of daily life in the polis and the seat of the choròs, a place of encounter and confrontation where man was brought face-to-face with his public dimension, part of a tribunal tasked with determining verdicts—whether acquittal or condemnation, success or failure.

In Manson, the new creation by Fanny & Alexander, which premiered on September 29 and 30 at the Teatro La Cucina in Milan, the audience is asked to reclaim this dual role, rediscovering themselves as members of a community that is both the public and the jury. The defendant is Charles Manson. He emerges from the darkness like a specter; his entrance is preceded by sharp, cutting phrases that rapidly appear on a monitor, illuminating the darkness and reconstructing the events.

An actor, Andrea Argentieri, directed from the outside, acts as a revealing intermediary of Manson’s hidden life, directly connecting us with it. We, the audience, by picking one of 32 questions from a list given to us at the entrance, interrogate him. A combinatory dramaturgy built from the exact words spoken during the trial, which Argentieri delivers in real-time as they are transmitted to him through an earpiece. A séance that opens the vortex of the abyss and makes us doubt, paraphrasing Manson, that perhaps we are nothing but reflections of all that we think we know.

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