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Mother Teresa, the musical
15/10/2003 09:38 - (SA)
Rome - Pilgrims flocking to Rome for the beatification of Mother Teresa of Calcutta next Sunday get a chance this week to see the revered nun as they never imagined her - a sassy, all-singing, all-dancing superstar.
The musical tells the story of the worldwide appeal of the diminutive nun who in her lifetime was treated as a living saint for her work taking care of the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta.
Author Michele Paulicelli's uncritical assessment of the sometimes controversial religious figure plays at Rome's Brancaccio Theatre for a limited run to coincide with Mother Teresa's beatification.
"A musical needs fiction to make the message more true. The aim is not to tackle political problems but to portray her most ephemeral aspects. It's a photograph of Mother Teresa," the author said.
Over the top
The musical drew a full house to the 1 300-seat Brancaccio for the first of 12 performances which opened on Tuesday.
Sister Maria Luisa, an Italian and Latin teacher who took her school class to see the musical for a morning performance, said it was a little over the top for her taste.
"But I suppose that's due to the demands of a musical. If it can help people to get an idea of what kind of person Mother Teresa was, then it's already something," she said.
Every scene was greeted by applause and cries of "bravo" from the audience, including many children and their teachers from several Rome schools.
'Never give up'
"It's a way of showing that even in suffering, you must never give up," said another nun, sitting alongside a group of schoolchildren.
It features 22-year-old actress Giada Nobile playing a gutsy Mother Teresa, battling officialdom to get badly needed food aid to the world's hungry. She dances and sings, surrounded by a cast of dancers dressed in the blue and white veils of the Missionaries of Charity order that Mother Teresa founded.
Paulicelli has made a speciality of writing on religious themes. A previous musical on the life of St Francis of Assisi ran for 20 years in theatres across Italy.
Already, the musical, which in Italian is titled Madre Teresa, has played to an estimated 70 000 people during a tour of Italian towns over the last year.
The ethnic Albanian nun, who died in 1997, was criticised for her dealings with some of the benefactors from whom she accepted large donations for the poor, including former Haitian dictator, "Baby Doc" Duvalier, and disgraced media tycoon, Robert Maxwell.
Some 250 000 pilgrims from around the world are expected to attend the beatication ceremony held by Pope John Paul II in St Peter's Square.
- AFP
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South Africa
