Harold Pinter's 'A Kind of Alaska' returns to Turin stage directed by Valerio Binasco

Valerio Binasco directs a new production of Harold Pinter's 'A Kind of Alaska' at Teatro Carignano in Turin, presented by Teatro Stabile di Torino and TPE as part of the Summer plays festival, which marks a strong restart of live performance after the COVID-19 lockdown. The play, written in 1982 and inspired by Oliver Sacks's 'Awakenings', follows Deborah, a woman who wakes from a 29-year lethargic coma caused by encephalitis lethargica, an epidemic that raged from 1917 to 1927 and was only ended in 1969 with the drug L-dopa. The setting is a cold hospital room, a recurring Pinteresque closed space, with minimal set: a table, bedside table, two chairs, and a transparent wall behind a metal bed. The only sound is a ticking clock. Doctor Hornby and sister Pauline, who is also the doctor's wife, gradually reveal the truth to Deborah, who believes she is still 15 and preparing for her birthday party. The doctor explains her brain is undamaged but 'suspended in a kind of Alaska'. The cast features Sara Bertelà as Deborah, Nicola Pannelli as Doctor Hornby, and Orietta Notari as Pauline. Binasco's direction emphasizes proximity and distance, with characters lowering face masks when approaching the patient, a realistic gesture reflecting pandemic life. The play explores themes of lost time, identity, and the shock of awakening to a changed world.