“You are a liar PippiLongstocking, but as a poet is. You never lie about feelings and above all about existence, but rather you invent stories simply out of a desire to tell, because you are generous.”
Pino Costalunga

The show

Exactly 75 years ago, Astrid Lindgren gave her daughter Karin, for her ninth birthday, the storybook of the strange little girl with the upturned pigtails who lived all alone in a big house. And so PippiLongstocking was born. Direction and adaptation by MarinellaRolfart and PinoCostalunga. Sets, costumes and puppets by TjåsaGusfor, one of Sweden’s most important set designers, who has recreated her own micro-world: a sort of fantastic miniaturisation where the puppets (guided by the actors in full view, not hidden as in puppet theatre) are the real protagonists of the scene.

The show narrates the story of Pippi, a little girl who is absolutely out of the box, and her friends through their carefree eyes. Pippi’s story unfolds from her arrival in the old house, Villa Villacolle, with a little monkey with the strange name of Mr Nilsson and a horse set up on the veranda, to her adventures with Annika and Tommy, her neighbours and playmates, in a colourful and amusing setting. The character’s traits have inspired many Swedish bestsellers, including LisbethSalander from Stieg Larsson’s Millenium saga.

During the production, Olof Nyman, the husband of Karin, Astrid Lindgren’s daughter and representative of the heirs, reviewed the dramaturgy of the text and confirmed its authenticity. Karin herself participated in the general rehearsals, approving its authenticity and confirming its distribution in Italy.

Director’s notes

PinoCostalunga, talking about this character, says: Thank you Pippi because you have shown that imagination, the ability to dream and invent is really the most important thing. You are a liar, PippiLongstocking, but as a poet is. You never lie about feelings and especially about existence, but rather you invent stories simply out of a desire to tell, because you are generous. (…) You have never hidden from children that there is evil and suffering in the world (…), but you have always said everything with sympathy and sweetness through the power of your crazy inventions.

The show

Dorothy, a child who lives in Kansas with her uncles, is thrown by a sudden cyclone in a country populated by strange characters.She lands in the village of Succhialimoni, some bizarre little men who thank her for having killed the wicked Witch of the East, crushed by the fall of the house.

Her only thought is to return home, but it seems that the only one who can help her is the Wizard of Oz.Along the way that will lead her to the Wizard, Dorothy meets the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion.Dorothy’s new friends think they have a void to fill, so they need the intervention of the Wizard of Oz.The Scarecrow believes he needs a brain, the Tin Woodman a heart and the Lion of courage, while Dorothy wants nothing more than to return to her country.

During the journey, each of them, facing their fears to overcome the obstacles they will encounter along the way, will show that they already possess what they thought they lacked.

Turning directly to Baum’s text, we tried to highlight the most “fantastic” aspect linked to that experience through which we all went through.

That dangerous and tortuous path which is growing up, becoming great.

It definitely takes brain, heart and courage!

Director’s notes

“The journey that little Dorothy makes to the country of Oz, together with her little dog Toto and the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Lion, is not only a journey that starts from Kansas (that is, from a real state in America ) to arrive in a fantastic country, but it is also a journey into Fantasy and with Fantasy. And what can be better, in a theatrical show, than using the THEATER to undertake this wonderful journey? Can it be done? Imagine on stage those strange machines that, at that time when there were no computers or speakers, were used precisely in the Theater to reproduce sound. The beautiful wind machine, for example, a kind of windmill rustling wood on a canvas, or the thunder machines, sheet metal plates hung on a wooden easel. Imagine that those machines are also capable of making you discover different places a little at a time and of knowing how to create colorful and fantastic landscapes. Immagine the character of the story that jump out as if by magic from the old twisted ropes or from the old dusty trunks. Then imagine in that Theater three actors who start playing with those objects that have become beautiful puppets and with those machines full of magical and mysterious sounds and effects. Three actors who use not only the word, but also and above all the body with its rhythm and its thousand possibilities. A game very similar to what children play. This will be our theatrical game, a game that today’s children sometimes seem to have forgotten. Which has been replaced by all those electronic “devilry” – useful in the theater as they are often also useful for children – but which seem to have dulled the imagination and creative force of our “I child”, both in theater and in life. A show with actors and puppets on stage, suitable for everyone from 4 years old. ”

Pino Costalunga – director

One of the most beautiful fairy tales for children, taken from the famous story by L. Frank Baum which retains its charm intact over time.A wonderful journey, in that dangerous and tortuous path that is growing up, becoming great.It definitely takes brain, heart and courage!

Three bungling actors stage, or rather try to do so, the well-known musical fable “Peter and the Wolf” by Sergej Prokofev.

Already from how complicated the first problems begin, because the three have not really studied!

They are therefore forced to improvise and invent odd ideas, seeking the complicity of the public, to find their way around cats, ducks, wolves, horns and clarinets.

Fortunately, the figure of the Great Narrator reigns undisputed and, with his voice, guides them safely along the path of the fairy tale.

But the three actors, a bit of a clown and a bit of an art comic, are so distracted and confused that they don’t follow the story well.

They try to make risky predictions about the fates of the protagonists of the fairy tale and often will have to ask the children for help to better understand the story and allow the Great Narrator to continue.

Like curious children, the three actors will try to reinvent the characters: “How will the character of the wolf change if instead of entrusting him to the horns we make him play the strings?”.

And playing together with the audience in an imaginary orchestra, they will discover that in “Peter and the Wolf” the important thing is that the invented story comes to terms with music and its various expressive moments.

Prokofev wrote his musical fairy tale with a specific educational purpose: to introduce children to the instruments of the orchestra, their sound and their expressive character.

This is why he associated a character and a particular musical motif to each instrument.

The narrator of the show, “the Great Narrator”, is the voice of Dario Fo who, with his theatrical genius, revisits the original fairy tale giving it a new youth.

On stage the three actors use jokes and gags to build a bridge between the story and the audience.

Their confusion becomes a pretext to point out and underline important didactic passages.

The mechanism of complicity with the public makes it so that the children themselves explain, playing the role of teachers for these three little students.

Every little spectator can therefore, in moments of interaction, give help, clarifications and suggestions, thus becoming the protagonist of a learning path.

Show inspired by the musical fable of Sergej Prokofev, recorded by the Verdi Orchestra of Milan courtesy of the Amadeus magazine, with the unforgettable voice of Dario Fo in the role of the Great Narrator and the scenes and illustrations by Emanuele Luzzati

Show also available in English

The show

Cipì is a sparrow that stands out from his peers for his desire to explore the world. Even from birth, the nest is too small for him. His mother’s advice is not enough to curb his curiosity: the desire to know the world is always stronger than any prudence. And yet this rebellion of his leads him to measure himself against great experiences and challenges. He discovers the beauty of nature, the value of friendship, learns to defend himself from men, from the lord of the night (an owl) and from the storm. In the end, he becomes a father and teaches his children to be diligent in order to remain honest, to be good in order to be loved, to open their eyes wide in order to distinguish the true from the false, to be brave in order to defend freedom.

The book

Cipì was born in the 70’s, within a precise pedagogical path, founded on the respect of the child and on the freedom of learning. In the show are developed themes related to the formation of the child. The curiosity and the desire to be oneself, which sometimes requires a little transgression and the refusal of homologation. The fundamental role of parental education, which must leave the child free to learn through experience and stimulus to growth. But if, on the one hand, the staging led by Selene Farinelli does not betray the themes dear to Mario Lodi, on the other hand it uses the traditional techniques of figure theatre to investigate its possibilities in the digital world. In fact, video projections and a software, specially created by Stefano Piermatteo, allow the actors to animate the characters in real time according to the stop motion technique, modifying the illustrations to be composed and animated live.