Wittgenstein’s nephew is a text that imposes a “solo” recitation, yet the relationship with the silent female presence that is on stage is absolutely fundamental. It is a difficult and demanding test as an actor. I have to be very careful not to be overwhelmed by emotion. I am used to managing my strength to yield to emotions according to the text, but there are moments, in the nephew, in which the emotions try to escape me and often I feel them tightening around my throat.
Umberto Orsini
The absolute protagonist, Orsini is Bernhard’s literary projection intent on portraying himself as he tells a silent listener the story of a singular friendship, of a relationship between two madmen: the first is Bernhard himself, who was able to dominate his madness, the second is Paul Wittgenstein, dominated by his madness and died in an asylum; half real and half imaginary character, nephew of the famous Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.