Serious concerns in the middle of a theatrical performance. Figure of Italian cinema, the actor Toni Servillo was the victim Monday evening April 17 of an illness on the stage of the Odeon theater in Paris, during a unique performance of Voci di Dante (“The voices of Dante ”) which had to be interrupted, noted a journalist from Agence France-Presse.
Alone on stage, Toni Servillo, 64, interpreted in Italian texts by the Neapolitan writer Giuseppe Montesano during this sold-out show. The performance was permanently interrupted after about 45 minutes, following a fall of the actor, victim of “vagal discomfort”, the theater told Agence France-Presse. “He’s fine,” he added.
Originally from Naples, Toni Servillo is the favorite actor of director Paolo Sorrentino, who gave him international stature by entrusting him with the role of Jep Gambardella in La grande bellezza. This film was notably awarded the Oscar for best foreign film in 2014.
Impressive with his art of metamorphosis, he had always played under the direction of Sorrentino the politicians Giulio Andreotti in Il divo (2008) and Silvio Berlusconi in the biopic Silvio and the others (2018).
More recently, in 2022 he played Pope Paul VI in Marco Bellochio’s Esterno notte series about the kidnapping of statesman Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades.
Coming from a family passionate about theatre, Toni Servillo has also directed plays by Molière, Marivaux, Goldoni and Eduardo De Filippo, as well as several operas.
