ABSTRACT
The opportunity to stage a production in Italy gave Foreman the chance to expand his international audience base and production dates were set for the autumn of that year. However, working in Rome proved to be a very different experience from that of Paris. Despite Perlini's enthusiastic support, the production quickly ran into major difficulties. The delay in starting rehearsals had serious ramifications and was only the first of a whole series of problems to bedevil the work. Disagreements about production costs, threats of legal action, disputes about who had said what to the Italian press, all rumbled on during the succeeding weeks and threatened to derail the process on several occasions. In January 1980 the production moved to its second Italian venue, the Palazzo della Triennale in Milan. The Palazzo was undoubtedly an unwelcoming and unsympathetic space in which to perform.
