Unpublished theatrical text by Andrea Camilleri discovered

With the posthumous publication of “Riccardino,” it seemed like there were no more unpublished works by Andrea Camilleri. However, a young work that the writer and director himself had said he had literally thrown away has come to light: it was found by his daughter Andreina among the piles of papers her father had kept at home in Rome. The story of the recovered text was told by director Giuseppe Dipasquale, who was first Camilleri’s student in theater direction at the National Academy of Modern Art Silvio d’Amico and then a personal friend. Dipasquale presented his book in Palermo, which contains anecdotes and dialogues with the writer. In his long career, Camilleri directed many works but always believed he could never be a playwright. “My whole life,” he confided to Dipasquale, “was overturned by the only original play I wrote.” It was a one-act play titled “Midnight Judgment.” It was 1947 and Camilleri was only 22 years old when he sent the text to the commission of the Faber Prize in Florence, chaired by Silvio d’Amico. The work won the first prize, which Camilleri personally went to collect. “When I returned to Sicily,” he recalls, “I re-read the awarded comedy on the train and said, ‘What rubbish is this?'” And I threw it out the window.” It is not known if Camilleri truly distanced himself from his work, which he thought “reeked of modernism,” with that toss out the window. Or if he had kept a copy. The fact is that the text was found by the writer’s daughter, as she herself reported to Dipasquale when the dialogue book had already been published. Dipasquale announced that the text will be published. And who knows if the volcanic Camilleri did not leave behind other unpublished works.

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Ritrovato un testo teatrale inedito di Andrea Camilleri

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