Figure of Italian cinema, the actor Toni Servillo was the victim Monday evening April 17 of a malaise on the stage of the Odéon Theater in Paris, during a unique representation of Voci di Dante (The voices of Dante) which had to be interrupted, noted an AFP journalist.
Alone on stage, Toni Servillo, 64, interpreted in Italian texts by the Neapolitan writer Giuseppe Montesano during this sold-out show. The performance was definitively interrupted after about 45 minutes, following a fall of the actor, victim of a “vagal discomfort”, specified the theater to AFP. “He’s fine,” he added.
Originally from Naples, Toni Servillo is the favorite actor of director Paolo Sorrentino, who gave him international stature by entrusting him with the role of Jep Gambardella in La grande Bellezza (Oscar for best foreign film in 2014). Impressive with his art of metamorphosis, he had always played under the direction of Sorrentino the politicians Giulio Andreotti in Il Divo (2008) and Silvio Berlusconi in the biopic Silvio and the Others (2018).
More recently, in 2022, he interpreted Pope Paul VI in the series Esterno notte by Marco Bellochio on the kidnapping of the statesman of Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades. Coming from a family passionate about theatre, Toni Servillo has also directed plays by Molière, Marivaux, Goldoni and Eduardo De Filippo, as well as several operas.