“The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it” – Oscar Wilde

Eleonora, or the Farce of Tragedy is a journey through time to eighteenth-century Naples. A historian sets out to write the life story of Eleonora Fonseca Pimentel. Chances are you have never heard of her. Yet she was a celebrated poet and a leading figure in the Neapolitan Revolution, and her story is heartbreakingly tragic.

Passionate about this history, the historian travels to Naples, bringing along an archival studies intern. Her husband, also a historian, is sceptical both about the book and about her reasons for taking an intern along. When he unexpectedly turns up in Naples, he finds his wife and her intern completely absorbed in their subject.

The three attempt to shape the book as it takes form. But jealousy, unequal power dynamics between husband and wife, and between teacher and intern, and conflicting approaches to historiography cloud the process. Past and present begin to mirror one another and gradually blur. The spectre of history slowly emerges in the here and now.

A few years ago, Manja Topper gave me Maria Antonietta Macciocchi’s book Dear Eleonora: A Passionate Woman’s Life in Eighteenth-Century Naples, translated by Annegret Böttner and Els Naaijkens. The book blends historical facts with fictional dialogue to bring history vividly and movingly back to life. This idiosyncratic, personal approach to historiography inspired us to write a play in which “historical truth” itself becomes the source of conflict.

The real tragedy (and farce!) is that we often find history interesting only when we recognise something of ourselves in it. As a result, we can never retell it without reshaping it to fit our own narratives. At the same time, we cannot leave it untouched without perpetuating its historical silences and injustices.

I have incorporated several vivid dialogues and scenes between historical figures from Macciocchi’s book into the play, either directly or in paraphrased form.

With and by Manja Topper, Jonathan Zeebregts, Artun Alaska Arasli, Ramses van den Hurk, Dúlio Duarte, and others
Text Joachim Robbrecht with the help of Artun Alaska Arasli