Writer: Alessandro Onorato
Original Music: Niccolò Bodini
An electronic synth swells and starts to pulse. We open on a stage draped in three camouflage nets that act as pillars, A4 sheets with typed prose hang from the nets and scatter the stage. To our right we have Niccolò Bodini, who for the duration of the piece will stand at a sound desk, artfully building and fading soundscapes that emote the tone and energy of the performance. Alessandro Onorato walks onto stage holding another stack of A4 paper. Over the next hour, he will read a story, fragmented across timelines and perspectives, from this paper and cast each sheet to his feet as he reads on.
This is the simple premise of Confused Chronicles of Aleppo, a story read aloud to a live score, and while this format spread out across an hour at times struggles to keep our fullest attention, the result generally is a piece of emotionally genuine theatre with heart, undoubtable depth and two performers who boast different but somehow harmonious talents.
The story, adapted from Onorato’s short story of the same name, takes us on a journey into Syria via Turkey through the lenses of two war photographers, Gerard and Becky, who are in love and driven by the voices of ghosts to take up this pilgrimage. Onorato narrates both in third person and as the characters he describes. Simply turning his head and altering some mannerisms we follow effortlessly as he assumes the many faces the two lovers meet along the way as well as the lovers themselves as they enter the active warzone.
Slow blackouts and moments of silence in the score create much-needed space in the otherwise constant monologue and it is in these gaps where we jump through time and space, learning more about this couple, their motivations and their ever-pressing march into the conflict they hope to capture. Bondini’s score alongside Onorato’s growing intensity brings us to a heart-wrenching crescendo, ahead of the softer bittersweet epilogue preceding the final blackout.
Often Onorato’s delivery points to this piece being initially written for page, not stage, with not enough effort made to fit the content more appropriate to the new format. This is not helped by the fact that Onorato reads directly from the page as opposed to having memorised the dialogue. Some longer sentences, heavy with language, too clunky for simple storytelling, struggle to fit into the piece’s flow and the swirling audio space Bondini creates.
Opportunities where Onorato could connect to the audience and take pauses to let the content breathe are lost as he rattles through paragraph after paragraph staring down almost entirely at the script. Yet the strength of the writing and the delicately emotive slow build to the piece’s conclusion, complemented by some great light design, still without doubt, will pull on your heartstrings and have you caring deeply about these two characters and their mission.
While the play could feel tighter and more rehearsed, at the core Confused Chronicles of Aleppo is a stunning piece of writing and an incredibly conceived collaboration between Bondini and Onorato.
Reviewed on 27 August 2023
