In a space in south London, with the feel of a school gym, Silvio Berlusconi is circling a young woman. Bearded and wearing a tracksuit, he creepily runs a finger down her arm, opens his mouth and bursts into song, “Be gentle with me, principessa.”
This is not, of course, the real former prime minister of Italy – at 86, still in frontline politics as part of the coalition for Giorgia Meloni’s government – but actor Sebastien Torkia, who is playing the role in an outrageous, dark new musical which opens tomorrow.
