A Difficult Journey With ‘The Prince of Madness’

By its very nature, performance art tends toward the inaccessible. Certainly, Dario D’Ambrosi’s “The Prince of Madness,” which closes tonight at the Italian Heritage Culture Foundation in Westwood, is a rambling, surreal show, difficult of approach.

Then there’s the fact that it’s rendered largely in Italian, a considerable stumbling block for those not conversant with the language. For many, it may be impossible to discern that wavering line between the purposely inaccessible and the unintentionally incomprehensible.

A veteran Italian performance artist who only infrequently tours the United States, D’Ambrosi commenced his theatrical career in the late 1970s. Struck by the sufferings of the mentally ill, he deliberately committed himself to an Italian mental institution, where he spent some months before emerging to found a theater company dedicated to exploring the plight of the mentally ill.

D’Ambrosi’s preoccupation with themes of madness and societal disenfranchisement is manifest in this brief, decidedly bizarre offering. The show opens as D’Ambrosi stalks on stage in ill-fitting top hat and tails, body twisted to one side, hand held to his chest like a claw. Apparently, he’s some sort of evil ringmaster, a despotic overseer who proceeds to auction off his ragtag assemblage of performers--a ballerina (Cristina Colombo), a clown (Paolo D’Agostino) and a mincing drag queen (Lorenzo Alessandri). But at some point, the balance of power shifts and D’Ambrosi becomes a pitiable victim, an unloved and disabled child whose mother eventually slays him.

Dubious highlights include the drag queen stripping down to briefs and flagellating D’Ambrosi with a long, phallic hose. Oh, and did we mention that Colombo gives birth to a melon on stage?

The point? You may well ask. Perhaps D’Ambrosi could tell us later, over lattes and linguine.

* “The Prince of Madness,” Istituto Italiano di Cultura’s Sala Rossellini, 1023 Hilgard Ave., Westwood. Today only, 7:30 p.m. Free. Reservations required. (310) 443-3250. Running time: 1 hour.