MISUNDERSTOOD

Northern Advocate, 15 September 1934, Page 13

MISUNDERSTOOD

ACTOR’S EXPERIMENT. *■“ “ I A REALISTIC ■ REHEARSAL. i MILAN, August 15. An amusing story of a humble actor’s enthusiasm for his art and its embarrassing consequences comes frC/m the Valle d’Aosta. From time immemorial the little town of Sordevolo, mjar Biella. has given an annual performance of the Passion of Christ, in which the actors are all local workers. For the last 20 years Domenico Otella, in private life a butcher, has filled with impressive realism the part of Judas. Last May those who went to Sordevolo to see the play were particularly impressed with the scene in which the body of the traitor is seen hanging from the fatal tree. Although Otella was able to remain for at least five minutes in that uncomfortable position, he was not satisfied with so short a time, and he had often experimented in order to extend this period without imperilling his neck. The organising committee of the Passion play this year decided to give additional performances in August. This news reached Signor Otella when he was already on holiday at St. Vincent, and he lost no time in resuming preparations for his part on the spot. His solemn, heavily bearded face, his I preference for solitude, his soliloquies j and declamations had already made I him an object of curiosity in the district, and when two boys ran into the village shouting that “ the mad gentlc--1 man" was trying to hang himself (from a tree the whole population hur- , riod to the woods and surrounded the tree in which Otella could bo seen cxj perimenting with a rope, his nock, and | a thick bough. At first he told the j rescuers to mind their own business, but finally some young men climbed the tree and induced him to descend. His explanation that he was preparing himself for a theatrical performance fell upon incredulous ears, and an hour later a telegram reached Otella’s family at Sordevolo requesting their immediate presence at St. Vincent to look after their “ unfortunate ” relative. On their arrival the truth of the matter soon became known, and jtho whole affair finished in laughter. I Signor Otella has now been given permission to suspend his body from as many of the trees of the valley as lie likes.