Oriana Fallaci: A Life of Glory

Early last month, the new play Fallaci made its world premiere at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. The presentation on the iconic Italian journalist will be on stage at the Roda Theatre through Sunday, April 21st.

 

Written by Lawerence Wright, Pulizer Prize-winning author of the New York Times bestseller Going Clear, and directed by Oskar Eustis, the play has already fascinated admirers that had the privilege to assist at the mise en scène.

 

Oriana Fallaci, who was born and died in the city of Florence (1930 – 2006), was not just a brilliant and well-known journalist, but also an author, and political interviewer. A former partisan during World War II, she had a long and successful journalistic career. Fallaci became famous worldwide for her coverage of war and revolution, and her interviews with many world leaders during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. After retirement, she returned to the spotlight, writing a series of articles and books critical of Islam, which aroused support as well as controversy.

 

Known around the world for his essays in The New Yorker and his bestselling books about al Qaeda and Scientology, Pulitzer Prize-winner Lawrence Wright also pens provocative plays. He turned the spotlight on a fellow reporter and her fascinating contradictions with the debut of Fallaci at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

 

Legendary Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci gained fame by grilling Henry Kissinger, Fidel Castro, Ayatollah Khomeini, Moammar Qaddafi and other public figures who had to deal with her ferocious questioning. In this world premiere, a young woman interviews the fiery author at the end of her life, when she became a darling of the right. What begins as a discussion of journalism ends with two women exchanging life-changing lessons about destiny and empathy. This sizzling new play is staged in a masterly manner by renowned director Oskar Eustis.

 

In fact, the playwright has set up this play as an interview, not surprisingly given the topic, a verbal duet sharply executed by (Concetta) Tomei and (Marjan) Neshat. It’s a good format for exploring Fallaci’s personal life—from teenage World War II anti-Fascist resistance fighter alongside her father, on through her prejudices and early celebrity as a dogged war correspondent—and for highlighting some of her most famous interviews.

 

The play was described by San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group as “…fascinating, provocative, Oriana Fallaci basks in the limelight once more in the new play Fallaci, now in its world premiere at Berkeley Rep. As astutely portrayed by the formidable Concetta Tomei, Fallaci comes across as half warrior, half diva.”

 

After retirement Fallaci, living in New York and in a house she owned in Tuscany, lectured at the University of Chicago, Yale University, Harvard University, and Columbia University.

 After September 11, 2001, Fallaci wrote three books critical of Islamic extremists and Islam in general, and in both writing and interviews warned that Europe was too tolerant of Muslims. The first book was The Rage and the Pride (initially a four-page article in Corriere della Sera, the major national newspaper in Italy). She wrote that “…sons of Allah breed like rats.” In a Wall Street Journal interview in 2005, said that Europe was no longer Europe but “Eurabia.”  The Rage and The Pride, and The Force of Reason both became best-sellers.

 

Her writings have been translated into 21 languages including English, Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Urdu, Greek, Swedish, Polish, Hungarian, Hebrew, Croatian, Persian, Slovenian, Danish and Bulgarian.

Known for its core values of imagination and excellence, as well as its educated and adventurous audience, the Berkeley Repertory Theatre has provided a portrayal of a legendary Italian public figure.