Come l'acqua che scorre
Regia di Salvatore Ronga
The show, organised by the Associazione Amici di Gabriele Mattera and the Associazione culturale Metamorphosis, will take place on Wednesday 10 September 2025 at 8 p.m., with a repeat performance at 9.30 p.m.
Admission is free, but accreditation is required by writing to prenotazioni@amicidigabrielemattera.com.
In the spring of 1925, Marguerite Yourcenar discovered Naples. During her stay, the writer visited churches and alleys, attended Holy Week rituals, made repeated excursions to Paestum and Pompeii, and landed in Ischia, where she was fascinated by the Aragonese Castle and its “beautiful bay”.
The impressions of the places she visited are brought to life in a youthful story, “Anna Soror”, which was published several times in subsequent years until its final version in 1982.
This story inspired, albeit in a free and original way, the play “Come l'acqua che scorre” (Like Flowing Water), written and directed by Salvatore Ronga, staged among the ruins of the Cathedral of the Assumption on the Aragonese Castle.
The protagonists of the story are Anna and Miguel, sister and brother, members of the Spanish aristocracy. The affection that binds them turns into mutual attraction, a feeling that each of them cultivates in the privacy of their solitude, not without misunderstandings and torment. A forbidden passion that translates into an act of freedom and rebellion with which to challenge the rigid rules of society.
The authoritarian and conspiratorial atmosphere embodied by their father, Don Alvaro, commander of the fortress of Sant'Elmo, is contrasted by the humanistic spirit, imbued with a love of classicism, which the two siblings inherit from their mother, Donna Valentina, together with the mirage of an ideal harmony between nature and culture.
In the background is 17th-century Naples, a city of contrasts: light and shadow, grace and sin, the splendour of gold in the ornate decorations of the altars and the misery of unmade beds in the brothels of the port.
Special thanks toMonica Hernandez for the poster illustration.
Images taken from the full video of the show produced by The Mother Factory ©Associazione culturale Metamorphosis
