Giorgio Strehler (1921-1997) was an Italian theater director and actor. He was born in Trieste, Italy, and lost his father at a young age. His mother, Alberta Lorich (stage name Albertini Ferrara), was a renowned violoncellist. The family had Austrian, French, and Slavic (Dalmatian) roots. When he was eight years old, the family moved to Milan, where he studied at a classical lyceum and the juridical faculty. He later joined the Academy Filodrammatici (amateur theater), which he graduated from in 1940, receiving the first prize in the acting class. He worked as an actor in various theater troupes (Annibale Ninki, Tumiati-Pilotto-Dondi, Melato-Giorda). During this time, he met Paolo Grassi and together they joined the anti-fascist group Corrente. During the war, he was exiled to Switzerland, where he organized the Teatro Maschere (Geneva), which featured political emigrants from various countries. His first productions were under the pseudonym Georges Firmin – The Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot and Caligula by A. Camus.
After the liberation of Italy, he became a theater critic for the left-leaning newspaper "Milano Sera". Simultaneously, he joined the Italian Socialist Party with Grassi. After staging the play Tragedy – the fate of Electra by Y. O'Neill, he left the newspaper and dedicated himself entirely to theater. In 1947, together with Grassi, he founded the first permanent theater in Italy – "Piccolo Teatro di Milano", which soon became one of the best theaters in Europe. He led it until his death. The theater produced national and international classics, as well as contemporary plays. The theater opened on May 14, 1947, with a production of The Lower Depths by Gorky, in which Strehler played the role of Alexei. The second production was the comedy Arlecchino, the servant of two masters, in which the spirit and playing style were revived. The production became a symbol of the theater, with a unique, one-of-a-kind fate – it lives, constantly being revived and updated. There are nine versions of this production, which remain in the theater's repertoire to this day. From 1961 to 1972, the role of Arlecchino was played by the great actor Marcello Maretti, and from 1963 to the present, it has been played by Ferruccio Soleri. With this production, "Piccolo Teatro" toured the world.
Strehler was one of the most interesting and subtle theater directors of the second half of the 20th century. In his work, Italian national comedy tradition, the art of psychological realism, and epic theater were combined. Although he was not the first to introduce new theater forms, he not only accumulated and implemented ideas that were circulating in the air, gathering all that was alive, viable, and innovative in contemporary theater, but also transformed everything into something unrecognizable, as a result of which his theater was born. The model of his theater, despite its apparent traditional exterior, is remarkably flexible and elastic, freely opening the way for new ideas. Strehler was known for his high humanistic position and was distinguished by his rare ability to perceive and recreate life in all its diversity, with all the richness of its sounds, colors, and their shades on stage. He said, "We always aimed to create a theater that could change the world." This quote encapsulates Strehler's passionate belief in life and art. In his theater, there were no slogans and straightforward schemes. He created a theater according to the laws of poetry and beauty. Among his teachers, he named Stanislavsky, Brecht, and Strasberg. He met Brecht in 1955 and staged several of his plays. In Strehler's interpretations, Brecht's playful, harsh plays became works of poetry. In general, Strehler's productions are characterized by an organic combination of lyricism and epic objectivity. He staged over 200 productions, many of which became classics of 20th-century theater. These include The Dacha Trilogy, The Cordob
