“Before The Storm” (“Prima Del Temporale”) At Milan’s Piccolo Teatro

Before the Storm is set in a rather dilapidated dressing room where an elderly actor waits to go onstage for his last performance in August Strindberg’s Storm. As he waits, he reflects on his long career in theatre, cinema and television, starting in the 1950s and 60s to the present. His vivid memories are punctuated by the coming and going of two figures: his dresser, a vivacious young woman, whose pleas for him to put on his hat and jacket, grow steadily more persistent as the time nears for him to make his appearance, and a Security Man, who, catching the actor smoking, yells a fierce warning that smoking is forbidden in the dressing room, but ends up by asking him for a cigarette.

Diamara Ferrero and Umberto Orsini in Before The Storm (EN: Prima del Temporale). Photo Credit: Claudia Pajewski.

This biographical play, focusing on actor Umberto Orsini’s celebrated, seven-decade-long career, was written by Orsini, who plays himself, and by well-known actor Massimo Popolizio, who directs. The work could have turned into a nostalgic walk down memory lane, but the two authors have generally succeeded in avoiding this pitfall. Orsini comes over as witty, self-depreciative and perspicaciously introspective, enjoying bouncing off the other characters as he narrates his story. He kicks off by reliving the moment in the early 1950s, when he left Novara, his hometown in Northern Italy, for Rome. Images of Northern Italy in the period flash onto a large screen, triggering his memories, and enriching the visual experience for audience members. From a very ordinary family, Orsini’s father worked as supervisor at an army officers’ mess, his mother, a cook at the same mess, he left home with little financial support, determined to become an actor. A long list of cheap boarding houses in the capital is projected, and Orsini repeats their names, weighing up what he can, but more realistically, cannot afford, while clutching an old leather suitcase. Soon after, he re-enacts his audition to enter the Accademia nazionale di arte drammatica, among the most prestigious drama schools in Italy. However, his performance of an excerpt from Luigi Pirandello’s The Man with the Flower in his Mouth (1922) solicits a violent reaction; from the rear stalls. A voice, with a Roman accent, can be heard shouting that the aspiring actor’s Northern vowel sounds are unacceptable. Notwithstanding Orsini passes the entrance exam and exits triumphant. Images of famous film and stage directors flash onto the screen, triggering stories about productions Orsini has been involved in. Among the highlights: a supporting role in Federico Fellini’s seminal film, Il dolce vita (1959) and the role of Deeley in Luchino Visconti’s controversial stage production of Harold Pinter’s Old Times in 1973. Images of celebrated actors, with whom he has worked, abound, such as Romolo Valli and Rosella Falk, members of La Compagnia dei Giovani (The Young People’s Company), directed by Giorgio de Lullo, which Orsini joined in 1957. He soon skips to the memorable production of Ronald Harwood’s Il Servo di scena (The Dresser), directed by Gabriele Lavia in 1980. Orsini fondly recalls the late Gianni Santuccio giving a magnificent performance of Sir, the celebrated Shakespearean actor, with Orsini in the role of the Dresser. There are also very personal moments, related tenderly, like his first kiss with a young man, five years his senior, whom Orsini’s father, influenced by the taboos of the time, made sure he would never see again. Instead, the picture of a young Ellen Kessler, the German variety performer, who, with her identical twin, Alice, rose to fame in the 1950s onstage and television, reminds Orsini of their long relationship in the 1960s and 70s. This photo struck a deeply tragic note in the audience, since the twins died in November 2025 at the age of 89 by joint assisted suicide. On a lighter note, now and then, Orsini reveals some ‘tricks of the trade’, such as how he memorizes his lines. To illustrate his favorite technique, he moves sprightly around the stage, miming a tennis match, while reciting and repeating his lines. And Orsini at 91 is still learning lines and playing new roles with his own company, La compagnia Orsini, which in 2026 will be touring Italy with Pinter’s Homecoming, directed by Massimo Popolizio, who also plays Max, and Neil Simon’s The Sunshine Boys, with Orsini in the role of one of the Vaudeville players. The show was sold out and this much admired and loved veteran of the Italian stage received a long applause.

The full version of the article “Before The Storm” (“Prima Del Temporale”) At Milan’s Piccolo Teatro is available on The Theatre Times.