THE COMPANY and inspiring profound changes in the social

and cultural sphere. The company carries

plays, collective exchanges, conferences, art
exhibitions and meditation workshops.
out its work through theatre productions, But, above all, TEV represents the desire to
TEV (Theatre of Eternal Values) is an concerts and festivals, as well as workshops elevate art to a form of contemplation. Its
international theatre company founded in and training courses in schools and journey is one that aspires to touch the soul of
1996 by a group of artists and professionals workplaces. its audiences and leave its mark there.
dedicated to human and artistic development. One of its particularly wide-reaching activities
The company has toured the world for is the “Culture of the Spirit Festival”,
the past seventeen years, staging original which TEV established in 2008, and which
productions and adaptations of works - from it organises in Italy and abroad. This
Molière to Shakespeare, and from Blake to celebration of the spirit involves artists from
Pirandello - that express the truly universal all over the world, with over fifty musicians,
values that reach beyond political, social and dance and theatre performances,
geographical barriers.
TEV is also dedicated to educating young
people and using art to promote the values of
integration.
Since 1996, TEV has garnered acclaim,
not only in numerous European
countries but also in India, America
and China, driven by a passionate
belief in theatrical performance as
a powerful medium for awakening
awareness

theatreofeternalvalues.com
2
Shakespeare’s Women
by Monia Giovannangeli, inspired by the
works of William Shakespeare
Directed by Eric Loren
If Shakespeare knew then what we know now,
imagine the roles he would have written for
his women ...
In the contemporary setting of a TV news
programme, we are presented with the news
events of the day. The protagonists are some of
Shakespeare’s heroines – Catherine of Aragon,
Ophelia, Lady Macbeth, Joan of Arc and
Titania – and the author himself, ghost and
witness to their stories. Having been conjured
up on the banks of the Thames, Shakespeare’s
spirit is forced by the characters to rethink
the way he has portrayed these women in his
plays as they address him directly, questioning
his motives and the reasoning behind the
situations he has placed them in.
The idea for this production came from the
desire to understand the evolution of women’s
role in society. It is this perception that gives
rise to a dynamic of theatre and dialogue
through which Shakespeare’s heroines find
again that choral unity able to epitomise the
body and soul of women
of all eras.
In the end, they find their strength together,
not alone: strength to understand once and for
all who they are and to empower themselves as
women, with the help of men.
From “Shakespeare’s Women”:
I saw it in her eyes and in that luminous
moment I decided. She needed a role. She
needed her story to be told. How could
they not see the humanity, awareness and
responsibility in her eyes? A single ray of light
illuminated the way for me – her life and the
world from which she came must be described.
What is her position? Can her voice be heard
– does she have any rights? Why is her life
made up solely of obligations? Are we perhaps
afraid of what this extraordinary creature could
achieve?”

“Shakespeare’s Women” takes us on a journey

seen through the eyes of these most incisive
of women and through their stories, which
are still so relevant to the women of today. As
they express themselves, confiding in us and
each other, they look to their creator, William
Shakespeare, for an understanding of their role
and identity.

His words form the basis of a dynamic

performance that interweaves the potency of
his language with the language modes of our
own times. The actors play with the roles of the
various characters between past and present to
bring to light unexpected emotions.
3
Summoned by the will of their author, his
heroines speak:
Catherine of Aragon, the Queen of England
and former Princess of Spain, is falsely
accused of treason against her husband, King
Henry VIII, when he decides to end their
marriage and seek romance elsewhere. She is
forced to plead her case in front of the Court
and religious officials, despite their obvious
bias against her.
Ophelia, the fiancée of Hamlet,
Prince of Denmark,
is desperate to
understand why
he has
suddenly rejected her love, and re-enacts
their last meeting to try to make sense of
his crazed actions. Unable to reconcile with
him and then faced with the death of her
father, Polonius, Ophelia eventually goes mad
herself.
Lady Macbeth, wife of the King of
Scotland, is the symbol of power
blackened by the most heinous
atrocities. Evil eats away
at her, leaving
her the victim
of her own
wrongdoing, until she is driven to suicide.
Titania, Queen of the fairies, falls victim to
a love spell at the hands of her vindictive
husband, Oberon. The powerful Queen falls
in love with a donkey and loses all credibility
when moved to sing the praises of the beast’s
beauty and grace.
Joan of Arc, the heretic known as the
Maid of Orleans, is accused of treason
and witchcraft. Despite the validity
of her inspired and divine visions,
demonstrated by the success of
the battles she has led against the
English armies, she is condemned
by her own French Heads of State
and is ultimately killed for her
preternatural greatness by
being burnt alive at the
stake.
4
CREDITS
Author
Monia Giovannangeli
(after the works of William Shakespeare)

Director
Eric Loren

Actors
Deborah Eckman - Joan of Arc
Monia Giovannangeli, - Ophelia
Alexandra Maitland Hume - Lady Macbeth
Nicolette van t’Hek - Catherine of Aragon
Adda van Zanden, - Titania
Victor Vertunni - William Shakespeare

Music and original compositions

Emma Turley - cello
Leo Vertunni - guitar

Stage and lighting design

Gunter Thurner

Costumes
Caterina Monaco

Props
Ornella Bollani and Francesco Paparella

Production manager
Maxim Vertunni

5
6
TECHNICAL
SPECIFICATIONS
Genre: one-act play
Language: English
Duration: 60 minutes
Actors on stage: 6
Musicians on stage: 2 (guitar, cello)
Possibility of performances throughout
the year, including outdoor spaces.
The technical details will be agreed on
site, depending on the space available.
Stage requirements: can also be
performed in unconventional theatre
spaces
(works well in courtyards or
amphitheatres).
Dimensions:
width 8m, depth 6m, height 4m.
Staging – Time required for get-in and
dress rehearsal: for an evening
performance, availability of the space
from 10.00 am (until get-out: around 30
minutes).
Cost: on request
Contacts: Associazione di Promozione
Sociale Theatre of Eternal Values Italia
Via Sopramuro 60
29121 Piacenza, Italy
+39 348 87 68 893
info@tevtheatre.com
Tax code: 91104910335 – VAT
01646390334 !
www.theatreofeternalvalues.com
www.shakespeareswomen.com
BIOGRAPHIES
ERIC LOREN
(UK) Director
Eric Loren trained as an actor at the
Central School of Speech and Drama
and has worked extensively in feature
films, TV, and theatre in London’s West
End and mainstream theatres, as well
as touring more places than he’d care
to mention. He has played leads in
World and British premieres and award-
winning dramas.
Eric recently re-directed ‘Let It Be’ at
the Savoy Theatre in the West End and
his changes were then implemented
both on Broadway and on Tour. As an
associate director of Theatre of Eternal
Values company, he directed ‘Eternity in
an Hour’ at the Swiss National Theatre,
Turkish National Theatres and New York
International Fringe Festivals and re-
directed ‘The Divine Humanity’ for the
Blake 250 Theatre Festival at London’s
Charing Cross Theatre.
Eric is currently working as
developmental producer/writer with
DNA Films/TV and writer Kerry Peers
on ‘Becoming Boudica’ - a new TV series
based on the Manda Scott novels. He
has just completed writing and directing
Barclaycard 2025, their new ‘digital
vision of the future’ and is currently on
board with Timeworks Films to direct his
first feature film ‘Charlie Don’t Surf’.
Recently turning his directing hand to
the Education sector, he has created/
directed two award-winning series, The
Storyspinner and Stories From Around
the World and the Traditional Storyteller
App, which is currently a finalist at
the BETT 2015 for Early Years Digital
Content and which previously won Best
Educational Resource of the Year 2012
for Early Years ICT and The English
Speaking Union’s Presidents Award for
teaching English.
DEBORAH ECKMAN
(UK) Joan of Arc/Bottom/assorted
characters
A founding member of TEV, Deborah has
appeared in several of their productions,
including Moliere’s The Imaginary
Invalid, which toured through Europe
and India, and William Blake’s Divine
Humanity, in London, to which she also
contributed as writer/composer. She
is an accomplished singer/songwriter,
recording and performing regularly, both
as a solo artiste and as featured vocalist
for other musicians, including Victor
Vertunni’s album ‘William Blake’s Songs
of Innocence & of Experience’. Deborah
released her first single, Dust, in 2013,
based on a poem by Shri Mataji Nirmala
Devi.
ALEXANDRA MAITLAND HUME
(UK-IT) Lady Macbeth/ assorted
characters
A BA Hons graduate in Performance Arts,
Alexandra has appeared in Toby Gogh’s
Linneus Prince of Flowers (Edinburgh
Festival Fringe First) and toured Ireland
with Terry Wright’s Song of Songs. One
of TEV’s founding members, playing
Beraldine in The Imaginary Invalid, she
has also appeared in the film of La Boheme
for Music Theatre London, and played
leading roles in Baloopa’s Journey, The
Betrayed Prophet and William Blake’s
Divine Humanity (TEV)
MONIA GIOVANNANGELI
(IT) Author/choreographer/Ophelia/
assorted characters
After training as a classical dancer at
the Accademia di Danza, Rome, Monia
completed her training with Teatro
Danza Contemperaneo, specialising
in the Martha Graham technique. In
the field of contemporary dance, her
artistic experience was further enriched
by studies, in Italy and abroad, with
internationally renowned dance teachers
such as Merce Cunnigham and Mischa
Van Hoek. She then continued her
theatre training with Catherine Gruyer
in the Le Coq method. Since 1994,
Monia has been conducting theatre
and dance theatre workshops, adding
the role of teacher to those of director,
actor and choreographer. After having
staged numerous successful theatre
shows, in which she also participated as
a performer, in 1996, together with other
artists from around Europe, she devoted
her energies to realising a revolutionary
international project: Theatre of Eternal
Values – TEV Company. This project
has seen her tour Europe, the US and
Asia as both actor and author. She is
artistic director of the “Culture of the
Spirit Festival”, which started in Italy in
2008 and which, since 2013, also holds
editions in the US and China. After a
number of adaptations of works such as
the Mahabarata, the Ramayana and the
Divine Comedy, Shakespeare’s Women is
Monia’s first full work as an author.
.
7
NICOLETTE VAN T’HEK
(NL) Catherine of Aragon/ assorted
characters
Born in the Netherlands, Nicolette trained
in Le Coq style at De Kleine Academie
with Luc de Smet, and then went on to
work with the Brussels theatre group
Andante, devising a play for children called
Binocchio. Since joining TEV in 1996,
she has appeared and toured in a number
of their plays, including The Imaginary
Invalid, William Blake’s Divine Humanity
and Eternity in an Hour.
ADDA VAN ZANDEN
(NL) Titania/ assorted characters
Adda is a Dutch actress with a wide
variety of experience in theatre, TV series,
documentaries and feature films. She has
taken leading roles in Medea. Midsummer
Night’s Dream, The House of Bernarda
Alba and Muse of the New Era, with other
roles in Amsterdamned, Hoogste Tijd,
and Shadow of Victory. She has been with
TEV since 2005 and appeared in William
Blake’s Divine Humanity.
GUNTER THURNER
(AU) Stage designer/lighting designer
Gunter has worked as a designer, set
designer and production manager for a
number of opera companies, working on
more than 120 productions in leading
theatres in Vienna, Salzburg, Tokyo,
Athens, Zurich, Munich and New York,
among others. Since 2006, he has also
collaborated with the Arianese studio
in Milan. His experience includes
involvement in many cinema productions
and TV films, including: The Three
Musketeers’, by Walt Disney Productions,
and “War and Remembrance”, an ABC TV
Production. Gunter has been working with
TEV since 1996.
VICTOR VERTUNNI
(UK-IT) William Shakespeare
Victor is an actor and singer/songwriter,
born in London, who has lived in Italy
since 1990. After completing a degree in
theatre studies at the University of East
Anglia, he worked on a wide variety of
theatre productions before founding the
TEV company in 1996. With TEV, he
has toured as an actor around Europe,
India, the US and Asia. He created the
musical adaptations of original poems
by William Blake, taken from the work
Songs of Innocence and of Experience,
and has performed them in venues and
festivals in Europe and the US. Some of
the adaptations form part of the theatre
production Eternity in an Hour, first
staged at the International Arts Festival
2008 in Helsinki, and thereafter in
concerts in Italy, Switzerland, Turkey
and the US, as well as at the New York
International Fringe Theatre Festival del
2010. In 2013, Victor performed in Lucca
at the World Council of UNESCO CLUBS
and again in China in October. Since 2008,
he has been joint artistic director of the
Culture of the Spirit Festival.
EMMA TURLEY
(UK) Composer/musician
A graduate of The Royal Conservatoire
of Scotland, Emma has since studied
music therapy, giving regular workshops
and performing with various ensembles/
orchestras. She co-wrote/performed
in several shows at Just festival and
Edinburgh Festival Fringe and is currently
working on compositions for an upcoming
production. Together with Leo Vertunni,
she composed the original music for
Shakespeare’s Women.
LEO VERTUNNI
(IT) Composer/musician
Leo has played guitar since an early age,
immediately creating his own personal
style, enriched by his extensive artistic
studies in various schools and with a
variety of teachers, including flamenco
guitar with Miguel Czachowski. In recent
years, he has worked with his own family
in theatre productions and on the musical
adaptation of William Blake’s poetry, a
project that has led him to tour the world.
In 2011 he oversaw the production and
arrangement of the critically acclaimed
album William Blake’s Songs of Innocence
and of Experience. Leo is studying
classical Indian music on the sitar under
the guidance of Avaneendra Sheolikar
and has performed in numerous concerts
around Europe, the US and China,
working together with flautist, Roman
Mollard, with a symphony orchestra for
the project “The Love that Moves the
Stars Above”, with the renowned fusion
band Indialucia, and as a soloist. He is
furthering his knowledge of Indian culture
with a course in Oriental studies at the
University of Bologna. Leo composed the
original music for Shakespeare’s Women
together with Emma Turley.
MAXIM VERTUNNI
(IT) Production Manager
Max’s passion for musical instruments led
him to enrol at the Stradivari school for
luthiers in Cremona (Italy). From a young
age, Max has worked on TEV’s theatre
productions on tour, and has also worked
as stage manager and lighting technician
in international film crews. As an actor, he
appeared in TEV’s London production of
William Blake’s Divine Humanity. He is
currently studying various aspects of stage
and lighting design at the NABA arts and
design academy in Milan.
CATERINA MONACO
(UK-IT) Costume designer
misuma.org
Originally from Rome, in 2007 Caterina
established in Edinburgh her own haute
couture ethical fashion brand: Misuma.
Caterina takes her inspiration from nature
and the mother earth, and over the years
she has created women’s clothing designed
and produced for theatre performances,
musical concerts and international
ceremonies such as the Olivier Awards
in London. Misuma combines precious
fabrics and materials acquired from
around the world to create garments that
allow the “soul” of the wearer to shine
through – even of those thought up by
Shakespeare four centuries ago.
ORNELLA BOLLANI
(UK-IT) Props & Costume design
Ornella started painting on fabric in
the 1990s, using various hand-printing
techniques. Then her travels and research
took her to the English coast, where she
gained a diploma from the Arts University
Bournemouth in June 2006. In 2009,
Ornella won an award in Design and Craft,
Fashion for theatre costumes. Fascinated
by Eastern Art, she also took courses
in Indian miniature painting. Ornella
also draws inspiration from the great
art of Kadinsky’s work for the theatre
and contemporary art, from Bauhaus
theatre to Chagall’s windows, from Klee to
Luzzati, where the fabric becomes the plot
and the text the costume.
8
9
ReviewS
“Moving and enthralling.”
Ilaria Cordì, Periodico Italiano Magazine
“Using a richly varied language that mixes
Shakespearian verse with everyday dialogue, these
heroines shed their dusty characters to put on the
clothing of the woman in the street...and rewrite,
if not the past, then at least the future of a society
that is obliged to recognise the central role that
women play in life as in art.”
Cinespresso
The distinctive feature of this play, in addition
to the beauty of the original passages quoted
and performed by each of the female characters,
is the intermittent insertion of comments into
the author’s dramaturgy. Ironic, reflective and
insistent, they call attention to the motives that
drove him to paint such weak, lonely, mad, cruel
and easily subjugated women... the individuality
of each Shakespearean character achieves a
homogeneous harmony, the voice of the female
gender across every age and space.
Stefania D’Orazio, Ghigliottina.it
AUDIENCES’ COMMENTS
Photographs of Shakespeare’s
Women
Emanuele Coniglio
rayheartphotography.com
“Great energy, exceptional acting, inspired Visual Communication & Design
message!” Massimo Luvié
studioluvie.com
Irma Zanetti, writer, Piacenza
“It is a truly original show. The premise is that
some of Shakespeare’s most famous female
characters underline, in a subdued and delicate,
but also strong and incisive cry of pain, the shared
female condition of all time. Little by little they
shed their theatre roles, experiencing and sharing
their sad destinies, finding themselves at the end
simply WOMEN, wiser, stronger, more prepared
for a new journey away from the stage.
“The actors’ capable and convincingversatility
in the multiple roles is commendable.
Even without any in-depth knowledge
of Shakespeare’s English, the audience
is carried away by the actors in a whirlwind
of emotions, and led on a veritable journey
through their inner beings. The costumes
are splendid and refined, in terms of both cut
and colour, able to create the entire set by
themselves, to translate and transmit the
psychological profile of the characters,
of the very actors, and in the end
of the human beings they represent.”
Grazia Pietrinferni, Rome
10
 VENI... VIDI... WHATEVER...
TEV PRODUCTIONS
WILLIAM BLAKE’S DIVINE HUMANITY

eternity in an hour

THE MAGIC FLUTE faust

friends

HAMLET der FILM

THE IMAGINARY INVALID zen-sations

EIN (zauberhafter) SOMMERNACHTSTRAUM

HANS CRISTIAN ANDERSEN

BALOOPA’S JOURNEY
BLAH-DI-DAH
HERO AND ZERO Film Festival
11