We sat down for an exclusive interview with Silvia Manazzone, the writer, director and performer of new solo show, THE CANNONEER. This show follows the true story of Peppa, the orphan from Sicily who stole a cannon, tricked an entire cavalry and became a forgotten heroine of Italian Unification.
This show runs from 13th-17th October at Barons Court Theatre. Tickets here.
Peppa tricked an entire cavalry with a stolen cannon and got a medal for it. What’s the part of her story that sounds too outrageous to be true but actually is?
I think her cold blood. It was honestly a very similar set-up to the one in Disney’s Mulan. Peppa pretended that the cannon had misfired, which is why the cavalry resumed their charge towards her. At that point, she was alone. And she waited until they were close enough, and only then did she fire. With this little trick, she bought enough time for her companions to run to safety. And you know, I wouldn’t be surprised if they fought the cannon misfired also because it was a woman behind it.
You call this documented history, not a Mulan ripoff. What’s the one detail from the real archives that no one would believe you if you made it up?
There’s a fun one. It doesn’t have to do with Peppa specifically, but with the historical situation in Sicily under the Bourbons. A decree was issued: since beards, which were out of fashion at the time, were associated with previous years of revolution, so they had to be cut off. They called it “hair decapitation”. The police would pick up anyone with a beard and take them to the nearest barber. I honestly could not have made something like that up!
You disguised your own body as hers was disguised. Did playing a woman pretending to be a man change how you feel about being seen as a woman on stage?
Personally, absolutely not. That is the beauty of acting, which I feel has been lost a little recently: it allows you to play characters who are far from you, even physically, and that is beautiful. Underneath the clothes, the mannerisms and the body shape, we are just human beings, with the same fears, hopes and dreams.
There is also a slight misunderstanding here, and I fear it might have come from the marketing campaign. Peppa doesn’t disguise herself as a man during the battle. She chooses to live the rest of her life dressed as a man after the battle, which I think is even more fascinating. She fought as a woman. Then she chose to live as a man. Why? I have my theory, but it’s just a theory.
Clowning usually undercuts tension, but this is a story about being erased. Where does the audience laugh, and does that laugh ever feel uncomfortable to you?
Actually, it never has. Because Peppa is strongly in denial about her own feelings and disappointment, she is the first to laugh at her own condition. And when she finally voices what is really going on inside, I think the audience can really relate to her pain.
The offence she feels at being erased is almost an excuse for Peppa to voice a much deeper frustration. The pain is not really about pride or achievements; it’s about fighting and hope.
Peppa presents herself as a clown: very Italian, over the top, drunk. But throughout the play, she slowly reconnects with her humanity. And anyway, I strongly believe that laughter can come in any situation; it doesn’t follow propriety. So if it comes, let it be!
You’ve performed this in a shed in Frankfurt, a fringe crowd in Edinburgh, and now a London theatre. Which audience got Peppa most wrong, and which got her right?
I don’t think any audience has got Peppa particularly wrong or right, but Germany really surprised me. It was the first time I’d performed the show, and because there are some scenes that involve the audience in ways I hadn’t really seen before, I wasn’t sure they would work at all. But they did.
The young man who volunteered to play Peppa’s boyfriend turned out to be exactly the same age as the character, and he was the most passionate companion! The show is ultimately a call to action, and afterwards people of all ages came up to me, telling me that the show had helped them make choices they had previously been unsure about. One man, with fiery eyes, asked me when the revolution would begin. He meant it!
If Peppa could watch you play her tonight, what’s the one thing you think she’d correct you on?
That is a very interesting question. Honestly, we know so little about her that I had to fill in a lot of blanks — not so much when it comes to the facts, but when it comes to her motives. She didn’t write anything, and certainly no one interviewed her.
Because there is a lot of research behind the show, I don’t think there is a single choice I made that doesn’t spring from something we know about her. But the sources themselves are a sequence of “they say”, “it appears”, “it’s uncertain”, so she could probably come here and correct us on more than one thing!
If I had to pick one, I would say her motives. Why did she join the fight? To fight poverty? For women’s rights? For pride? For love? We don’t know. I had to make a choice, and she might very well prove me wrong.