To go on stage is relatively easy as the stage director pushes you into the spotlight.It is more difficult to leave the stage sliding between the wings judging the exit with care because there is always someone who wants to cheat you out of your applause.For Romolo Valli he would have liked to go ‘Prima del Silenzio’ as he himself said quoting from the title of his last play,instead of a banal overturning of his car for he who was so Proustian in his stage roles.And Turi Ferro? Sometime before his end he felt so ill he confused life with death.He was destined to die in the wings perhaps upset that he had to pass his retired life digesting useless medicine and not a little scandalous gossip.

Also Gassman dreamt of dying on stage like ‘The Great Kean’ .He announced it often although he kept his fingers crossed ,as he told his friend Carlo Mazzarella,because he had so much more ahead of him to look forward to .Raffaele Viviani ,De Filippo,Angelo Musco ,Anna Lelio all had dreamt to die on stage like Molière.And there was a truly great actor,Antonio Petit feeling that death was close managed to put his costume on as Pulcinella to give himself up to his respected public.Playing ‘Gli esami non finiscono mai’ Eduardo tried at the Eliseo to do like Petit but he had an actress companion who he loved so he finished with only flirting with death until with his superb irony vanished together with her.

In Rome in Via delle Fornaci a stones’ throw from the austere home of that great Italian called De Gaspari there was once upon a time a seedy little cinema called ‘Rosa’.Cabaret companies would perform until with courage a delicate lady with an iron will turned it into a theatre to which she lent her name :the Ghione Theatre – because the daring actress /impresario was called Ileana Ghione.

Yes I am talking about the delicate actress who died two weeks ago whilst on stage ,she so fresh and open playing the terrible rugged Ecuba.Tenderly the President Ciampi sent a heartfelt message to Ileana’s husband ,the English pianist Christopher Axworthy.A serious artist has left us and one who in my honest opinion never had the fame she deserved.But she cared very little of success often not merited : she just adored acting.Under the make up her complection was pale surrounded by the perfume that only the stage can produce of a mixture of talcum powder and cologne of wood ,velvet and rhinestones.

Before leaving the stage forever she took off her wedding ring and placed it on the finger of her companion of a happy life together.In the confusion that death can create Ileana’s ring vanished .Christopher tortured himself in desperation asking forgiveness from his adored companion.But Ileana seemed to just smile indulgently with a shade of irony on her lips.And so returning to the theatre Chris found the missing wedding ring on the pavement outside the theatre.This is a great ending .Worthy of an actress who knew how to be a wife,companion and a real person.Always.

‘Every invented drama reflects a drama that is not invented’ Francois Mauriac

Christopher Axworthy Dip.RAM ,ARAM