StageFaves founder Terri Paddock hosted a post-show Q&A at Tristan Bates Theatre with the creatives and cast of SAN DOMINO, an original British musical about a real-life Italian atrocity that is too easily
Before the performance at Tristan Bates Theatre, the 16-strong company of San Domino entertain theatregoers in the bar with some jaunty patriotic songs, with which they lead them into the auditorium. It’s somewhat akin to the chilling scene in Kander and Ebb’s Cabaret when the Hitler Youth sings “Tomorrow Belongs to Me”.
Inside the auditorium, we learn more about how a fascist state treats those for whom, in their opinion, the future does not belong – including the “degenerates” who are unwilling to perform their duty of providing their nation with sons and daughters.
San Domino is an original British musical, written by long-time friends (and former bandmates) Tim Anfilogoff and Alan Whittaker, about the real-life Mediterranean island prison of the title, where, under Mussolini in the years leading up to the Second World War, hundreds of gay men were imprisoned. Anfilogoff first learned about San Domino from a 2013 feature on BBC Radio Four’s From Our Own Correspondent, when a reporter attended a ceremony on the island to unveil a small plaque on the island that commemorates the victims and promises that Italy does not forget.
In fact, like many of collaborationist activities of the Vichy Government in France, this stain on Italian history is largely forgotten – a point immediately underlined by an Italian couple in the audience yesterday who said they recently vacationed on the very island, hadn’t seen the plaque and had no idea that it was once a prison.
For the discussion after yesterday’s matinee, I was joined by Alan and Tim, as well as San Domino director Matthew Gould, musical director James Cleeve and cast members Mark Stewart, Matthew Hendrickson, Alexander Hulme and Joe Etherington, with additional contributions from co-stars Christopher Laishley, Andrew Pepper, David Gibbons and Roger Parkins.
SAN DOMINO runs until 30 June 2018 at Tristan Bates Theatre, 1A Tower St, London WC2H 9NP, with performances Tuesdays to Saturdays at 7.30pm, Thursday and Saturday matinees at 2.30pm. Tickets are priced £12-£17.50. CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE!
Q&A livestream
Here's how Terri got the discussion going... before the wifi dropped! To hear more from the team and other experts, we advise that you return to the show for one of the other post-show talks running during London Pride month in June: on Saturday 23 June with Sarah Day, author of Mussolini's Island, and on Tuesday 26 June with LGBTI and human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell.
