“I wanted a show which would also be an opportunity for a group of young actors to put themselves to the test in one of the most exciting chapters of Italian theatre”. Thus Luca de Stefano explains his idea for a production, taking as a starting point a cornerstone text, Actors, merchants, pirates. The Commedia dell’Arte in Europe between the 16th and 17th centuries, which Siro Ferrone wrote about twenty years ago and which since then has been considered to be the most complete work on the subject.
De Luca – very much an expert on the Commedia dell’Arte and the theatre of Carlo Goldoni in particular, not only for his co-directing alongside Ferruccio Soleri of the latest edition of Strehler’s Harlequin, but above all for his directing of The lovers at the Teatro Maly in Moscow, andLa barca dei comici at the Piccolo in Milan; imagines a show based on many sketches. “Short scenes, in couples, trios – continues de Luca – in which our young actors recount moments of the daily life of a hypothetical company of comedians travelling Italy and performing in the streets and squares. Following a brief prologue in via Rovello to attract the attention of the spectators, the audience will be “lead” into the Chiostro Nina Vinchi. Here, around a cart which recalls the “legendary” carts edition of Strehler’sHarlequin, the artists will begin their show. Short sketches based on the traditional themes of the Commedia dell’Arte will alternate with skirmishes, glimpses from an imaginary “behind the scenes”. Song, music and life in a kind of pot-pourri of acted scenes and moments of comedy and poetry in a most physical of theatrical dimensions, all shot through with the extraordinary energy of the young and enthusiastic. I want to show a world which is inevitably poor, even a little course, in which the street artists have to continuously face injustice, the arrogance of those in power, the being in or falling from the good graces of this or that lordling. They were actors who worked for their daily bread, who turned their art into a ploy for survival”.
It is a show of mime and acrobatics, created for an international audience of all ages. “There will be plenty of interaction with the audience, and reference will also be made to the location of the show, the Palazzo del Carmagnola, which dates from the same period in which the Commedia dell’Arte flourished”.