There is a line that connects the Italian theatrical tradition to its ability to tell in the world, and is that of the popular theatre, made of masks, puppets and oral narrative. The third event of the “On the Italian Stage” series is linked to this tradition, scheduled on March 25, 2026 at 17:00 in digital format, within the Zoom Lecture Series hosted by Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò. The cycle, conceived and conducted by Laura Caparrotti, artistic director of the Kairos Italy Theater in New York, is designed to analyze the role of Italian theatre in the formation of national identity and its international diffusion.
The meeting, entitled “Pinocchio Is Born”, focuses on one of the most important and famous characters of Italian culture: Pinocchio, the protagonist of the novel published between 1881 and 1883 by Carlo Collodi, a pseudonym of Florentine journalist Carlo Lorenzini. The event also celebrates a double symbolic anniversary: the 200th anniversary of the birth of Collodi and the 100th anniversary of the birth of Dario Fo, actor, author and Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997, who built much of his theatrical research on the rediscovery of popular and jullaresche forms.
The focus of the meeting is not as much the character itself as the theatrical context from which it was born. Collodi writes Pinocchio in a newly unified Italy, where the puppet theatre represented one of the most popular forms of entertainment, especially among the popular classes. Figures such as Arlecchino, Pulcinella and the masks of the comedy of art had already codified a scenic language made of gestures, improvisation and social satire. Pinocchio is part of this tradition, but extends its scope: as a stage puppet he becomes a literary character, and from there global icon, translated into over 250 languages and adapted into numerous theatrical and cinematographic contexts, from the animated film of Disney in 1940 to the most recent versions, such as the one directed by Matteo Garrone in 2019.
The approach of the lecture, as in the previous stages of the cycle, aims to reconstruct the link between theatre and society. The puppet theater was not only entertainment, but also an instrument of political and social commentary, often able to circumvent censorship through the allegorical language. In this sense, the implicit comparison with Dario Fo is almost natural: his works, from “Mistero Buffo” to “Accident Death of an anarchist”, have recovered that tradition to tell contemporary contradictions.
Participation in the event is free, but requires mandatory registration.
L’articolo Riscoprire Pinocchio alla Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò proviene da IlNewyorkese.