My Brilliant Friend in Comics

Tickets will be redeemed at the reception table at 7:00 pm on event date.

It is a free seating performance, seats are first-come-first-served.

The performance will be in Italian with subtitltes.

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A recital based on the graphic novel by Marra Cerri and Chiara Lagani on My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, to celebrate together the XXIV Week of the Italian Language in the World. This event is also part of the Italian autumn festival Italia On Stage.

The story is about the friendship between two women and follows step by step their individual growth, the way they influence each other, the feelings, the conditions of distance and proximity that nourish their relationship over the decades.

Chiara Lagani performs on stage the texts of Elena Ferrante in the adaptation she made for the comic composed together with Mara Cerri. Behind her run the drawings taken from the book, to give body and face to the moments evoked by the words of the story.

Fanny & Alexander is an art collective founded in Ravenna in 1992 by Luigi de Angelis and Chiara Lagani. It produces theatrical performances, video and film projects, installations, performative actions, photographic exhibitions, publications, conferences and study seminars, festivals and exhibitions.

Chiara Lagani was born in Ravenna, Italy and studied literature at the University of Bologna. She is a playwright, writer, language scholar, translator and actress. For years she has been carrying out a complex work of cultural weaving and thematic investigation together with international scholars and researchers including Stefano Bartezzaghi, Margherita Crepax, Florence de Mèredieu, Alan Jay Edelnant, Jean Jacques Lecercle, Luca Scarlini, conducting training workshops in Italy and Europe, but also participating in conferences in university contexts (Catholic University of Leuven – Belgium, University of Rennes – France, La Sapienza University of Rome, Department of Performing Arts of the Dams of Bologna) or cultural and theatrical centers.

Mara Cerri was born in Pesaro, Italy and graduated from the Istituto Statale d’Arte – Scuola del Libro – of Urbino. She is one of the most talented Italian illustrators and authors of animated films. Her powerful voice brought her illustrations to be published in books, magazines and on movie and festival posters. With her brushes, she likes playing on the threshold between visible and invisible, reality and imagination. Her works were selected and exhibited in important fairs like Bologna, Bratislava and Lisbon. In 2022 she was awarded with two important prizes, Andersen and Strega Ragazze e Ragazzi, for the book “Il segreto”, created with Nadia Terranova. In the same year, she translated Elena Ferrante’s words into images with the comic book adaptation of the bestseller “L’amica geniale” on the script by Chiara Lagani, published by Coconino Press.

Host or Publisher Italian Cultural Institute - Hong Kong