NY Fringe Festival Review: ARTIFEX: The Artistic Life of Emperor Nero

ARTIFEX. The Artistic Life of Emperor Nero
Presented by: The Artifex Company
Writer: Davide Ambrogi, Original Music by Davide Ambrogi
Director: Velia Viti

Summary:
Emperor Nero and his court take a psychological trip inside his artistic mind with the help of an Italian five-person troupe called Artifex. Allesandro DiSomma, Marco Zordan, Chiara Loriga, Daniele Grifoni and Davide Ambrogi use comedy, drama, dance and music to tell the “creative joys, fears, doubts and deepest anxieties the artist usually carries within himself. Escaping from Rome, after a long tour in Greece and aware of his imminent political fall, Nero asks his courtiers to stage what he feels are the most important episodes of his existence.”

Confession: without that description from the program, I wouldn’t have had any idea what I had been watching. It’s heavy on dialogue, some of which is hard to understand when delivered in heavily-accented English. Unless you're a real fan of Nero, it tends to be on the boring side.

Highlights:
• Only 50 minutes long

Lowlights:
• The lone female seemed to spend a lot of time being groped and having her bottom slapped, but for some reason, when a female is needed, the role of Nero’s mother is played by one of the male members of the troupe (including a seductive kiss with Nero).

Christians might also like to know:
• Sexually seductive dialogue (OK, in truth, I’m guessing, because the dialogue to which I refer was in Italian, which I don’t speak, but some things need no translation….)

Fringe Tassels Awarded: 1

VENUE #14: The Cherry Lane Theatre
The run has ended.

--Lauren Yarger