This Mandrake is transposed into a present dominated by finance, profit, and appearance. Machiavelli's Renaissance Florence becomes the Global City, a glass and steel skyscraper where everything is transparent. The characters act not out of love or faith, but out of desire, convenience, and opportunism. The comedy thus becomes a scathing satire of contemporary capitalism, where every relationship is a transaction. The action takes place inside a corporate skyscraper. The set is minimal and modular: transparent panels, neon lights, screens with financial charts and breaking news. All around, the city looms: a vertical, competitive, dehumanized world. Callimaco is a young, ambitious manager, brilliant, seductive, devoid of any morals. Deception is not a means, but a professional skill. Messer Nicia is an elderly CEO obsessed with legacy and reputation; he doesn't understand the changing world, but is willing to do anything to leave a "successor." It's both ridiculous and tragic, a symbol of empty power. Lucrezia is an intelligent woman, trapped in a marriage of convenience and a system that demands her to be "perfect." Her final surrender isn't weakness, but a clear choice for survival and power. Fra Timoteo becomes an ethics consultant, a spiritual media leader who uses the language of morality to justify any action. He's the most dangerous figure because he legitimizes cynicism with reassuring words. Meanwhile, Ligurio is easy to imagine as a fixer, lobbyist, or business intermediary. He's the true driving force behind the action: he understands how the mechanisms of power work and exploits them without ever exposing himself, the perfect embodiment of the end justifying the means. Power as manipulation, morality as a rhetorical tool, the body and desire as commodities, the victory of amoral intelligence.

Rosario Calvagna

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23 - 31 Jan, 2027

The Mandrake · Teatro Biondo

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