Emma Dante puts an original spin on one of the most famous short stories from the collection with which, in the 17th century, Giambattista Basile created a masterpiece of Italian and international literature. Basile’s Neapolitan dialect, nourished with slang, proverbs and common forms of abuse, produces theatrical ways and mannerisms, with gags from the Commedia dell’Arte and echoes of Shakespeare.
The short story speaks of a king who, through trickery, falls in love with an old woman. Transformed into a beautiful young woman by a fairy’s spell, the “young” woman tells her sister that she allowed herself to be flayed in order to become so beautiful...
In 17th century tradition, Dante entrusts the three roles of the sisters and the king to two men. In a space characterised by just a few props, with a miniature castle evoking a dream world, the two “old” women, in order to pass the time, stage that old fable which aims to teach women not to be vain, the elderly to have a sense of the ridiculous, and men to not trust appearances.