The last, and by all reports the most interesting, in a three-part miniseries of gay-themed drama at Galleria Toledo, L'anello di Erode is a portrait of Rome's gay scene. Lucilla Lupaioli incorporates terms found in Roman dialect into depictions of the various types that might be found: an experienced hustler, a younger one who leaves his girlfriend at home while he makes easy money, a determined john, and a (still?) idealistic guy in search of love.
In the end, love proves impossible, and only cynicism is viable. A curious combination of honesty and deception reigns in the large underground storage area near an off-season beach where the interactions take place. In Furio Andreotti's direction each entrance is breathless, and the players share their stories with us with difficulty. Alessandro Vanucci's two-story set is poorly exploited. For example, one of the hustlers could have been placed above at street-level during the encounters below.
Most of the blame for the lack of impact of Ms. Lupaioli's well-constructed play must be assigned to poor casting. While most of the energetic, young actors would be effective in performance art, they are less effective when clearly-drawn characters must emerge. Alberto Alemanno is more disdainful than jaded as the older hustler Erode was. Only Alessandro Carvaruso as bourgeois john Giovanni has the requisite stage presence, in spite of his spacey demeanor.
