A Yard of Sun
Fry, a British playwright, set his 1970 “summer comedy” in a Siena courtyard in July 1946. The play opens on the day before the Palio, an extravagant festival dating back to the 14th century that includes a horse race: riders from each of Siena’s 17 wards compete to bring glory to their district. The event is a source of overweening local pride, and this particular Palio–the first since Italy’s humiliating defeat in World War II–may help ameliorate the city’s burden of shame and guilt. Fry dramatizes the war’s moral aftermath in the three Bruno brothers: Roberto, a former resistance fighter turned Marxist-leaning physician who will treat only the downtrodden, thus rendering himself financially unable to treat anyone; Luigi, a former Blackshirt turned junior politician hoping to cast off his inglorious past like yesterday’s underwear and align himself with the ascendant party; and Edmondo, the errant self-described “internationalist” who made a fortune selling arms to both Axis and Allied powers.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
That is, until Neumann enters. From the moment he appears as Cesare Scapare, returning to Siena in rags from a prisoner-of-war camp, he establishes an entire history. Suddenly a community forms; Neumann visibly defines his relationships with everyone onstage. The power relations among these people, which until now have merely been discussed, become palpably real. And in his final 28 lines, Neumann elucidates Fry’s poetry without sacrificing his drama.
