Debut: Genoa, Politeama Genovese, March 13, 1971 (RaiTeche movie)
| Direction | Luigi Squarzina |
| Assistant director | Gianni Fenzi |
| Set e costumi | Gianfranco Padovani |
| Production | Teatro Stabile di Genova |
Characters and performers
THOSE OF WHY
| Raffaele Persichetti | Giancarlo Zanetti |
| Worker | Antonello Pischedda |
| Soldier | Davide Maria Avecone |
| Officer | Pierangelo Tomassetti |
| The general of today | Maggiorino Porta |
THE WITNESSES
| The little woman / /Mariella Lotti | Carla Bolelli |
| Ettore Muti, former Secretary of the T.N.F. | Pietro Biondi |
| Eugenio Dollmann, colonel of the S.S. | Gianni Fenzi |
| Ambassador Rudolph Rahn | Attilio Cucari |
| Frau Abeba | Anna Menichetti |
| Antonio Pennestri | Adolfo Fenoglio |
| Lieutenant Alberto Faiola, of the Carabinieri | Tullio Solenghi |
THE COURT
| Vittorio Emanuele III, king of Italy and of Albania and emperor of Ethiopia | Daniele Chiapparino |
| Elena, his wife, the queen | Enza Giovine |
| Umberto, their son, hereditary prince | Gianpiero Bianchi |
| Duca Pietro Acquarone, Minister of the Real House | Alvise Battain |
| Generale Paolo Puntoni, aiutante di campo di Sua Maestà | Claudio Sora |
| Rosa Gallotti, maid | Mara Baronti |
MINISTERS
| Pietro Badoglio, Marshal of Italy, Head of Government | Gianni Galavotti |
| Raffaele Guariglia, foreign minister | Piero Gerlini |
| General Antonio Sorice, Minister of War | Claudio Sora |
| Admiral Raffaele De Courten, minister of the navy | Sandro Dal Buono |
| General Renato Sandalli, Minister of Aeronautics | Luigi Carubbi |
POLITICIANS
| Dino Grandi | Rodolfo Traversa |
| Lawyer Mario Zamboni | Piero Gerlini |
| Ivanhoe Bonomi | Claudio D’Amelio |
| Secretary of Leg. Mario Badoglio, son of the marshal | Giorgio Lopez |
THE ARISTOCRACY
| Duchess Antonia Caetani d'Aragona, of Bovino | Anna Menichetti |
| Duca Gaetano Cafiero, di Bovino, her husband | Luigi Carubbi |
| Ernesta Falcone, housekeeper | Myria Selva |
| The chef Alfonso | Enrico Ardizzone |
THE MILITARY
| General Vittorio Ambrosio, head of the Supreme Command | Camillo Milli |
| General Giacomo Carboni, head of the S.I.M. | Omero Antonutti |
| General Mario Roatta, head of S.M. Army | Adolfo Fenoglio |
| Marshal of Italy, Enrico Caviglia, at rest | Guido Lazzarini |
| General Calvi of Bergolo | Pietro Biondi |
| Colonel Leandro Giaccone | Sandro Dal Buono |
| The General Giuseppe De Stefanis | Claudio D’Amelio |
| Lieutenant Colonel Iannuzzi, assistant of Ambrosio | Antonio Maronese |
| Colonel Giorgio Salvi | Nino Faillaci |
| General Umberto Utili | Rodolfo Traversa |
| Colonel Vincenzo Toschi | Attilio Cucari |
| A non-commissioned officer | Mario De Martini |
| A receptionist | Giorgio Lopez |
| A column | Mario Marchi |
| An attendant | Franco Griggi |
I CARABINIERI
| General Angelo Cerica | Maggiorino Porta |
| Marshal Vincenzo Agostinone | Sebastiano Tringali |
| First pinned | Mario De Martini |
| Second pinned | Mario Marchi |
POLICE
| Doctor Carmine Senise | Enrico Ardizzone |
THE ANGLO-AMERICANS
| General Bedell Smith | Attilio Cucari |
| General Maxwell Taylor | Rodolfo Traversa |
| Colonel William Tudor Gardiner | Antonio Maronese |
| Marshal Harold Rubert Alexander | Pietro Biondi |
| General Dwight Eisenhower | Guido Lazzarini |
| Harold Mac Millan | Franco Griggi |
| Roberto Murphy | Nino Faillaci |
THE ITALIAN MISSION
| General Giuseppe Castellano | Eros Pagni |
| Consul Franco Montanari | Gianpiero Bianchi |
| Major Luigi Marchesi | Sebastiano Tringali |
| Major of Aviation Giovanni Vassallo | Antonio Maronese |
PEOPLE
| The fisherman Sebastiano Fonzi | Enrico Ardizzone |
| A commoner | Gilda Vivenzio |
Written with Enzo De Bernart and Ruggero Zangrandi, and remaining in the realm of a programme of historical-dialectical plays, this work is a piece of document-theatre, based on a great deal of rigorously evaluated documents. But the director gives dramatic form and theatrical reason to events and characters in a considerably complex play, in which he directs forty actors playing sixty characters. His talent for theatricality is particularly evident: in the initial scene, acted in the dark, which highlights the anxiety and confusion of the generals and the ministers who crowd and obstruct one another while boarding the ship that will rescue them; in the use of a machine that projects onto a screen the days and times of those tragic events; and in the innovation of audience interviews conducted by the actors playing characters who are dead because of those events, who climb down to the parterre with a microphone and camera to ask the audience where they were on 8 September 1943.
The show garnered great success with audiences and critics alike.
“Volevo mostrare in teatro la codardia di un re che fugge, abbandonando il suo popolo e il suo esercito nel caos e nella disperazione, la malafede e l’incapacità di Badoglio e dei suoi generali, lo squallore di una classe dirigente che ci aveva portato al fascismo e alla disfatta”.
Luigi Squarzina
From E. Testoni, Dialoghi con Luigi Squarzina, Firenze, Le Lettere 2015, p. 187
The press service - RaiTeche
We thank Teatro Nazionale di Genova for the concession of the use of photographic material.