Antonio Latella's Pinocchio Debuts at Piccolo Teatro Milano

Antonio Latella's production of Pinocchio has premiered at the Piccolo Teatro di Milano. The set features a large trunk suspended in a nocturnal landscape, with wood flakes falling like snow, serving as a visual synecdoche for the puppet's nose. The narrative explores hunger, lack, and absence, with characters in constant metamorphosis: Master Cherry conceals an elderly and deceased Fairy, Geppetto appears as a shadow, and Candlewick embodies the protagonist. Christian La Rosa delivers a persistent, nervous performance as a Golem-like figure straddling artifice and nature. The production draws on Artaud's ideas and echoes Carmelo Bene's compulsive style, though it diverges into a human, painful search for meaning within a classical theater framework. The show features scenes by Giuseppe Stellato, lights by Simone De Angelis, and notable acting by Marta Pizzigallo as Colombina. Latella's interpretation delves into disturbing themes such as pedophilia, eros, poverty, hunger, damnation, and ecstasy, set in a twilight atmosphere that resonates with contemporary times.