La légende du saint guerrier

actors, objects, shadows

Text and Stage manegement: Aldo de Martino
Stage and Figures: Violetta Ercolano
Shadows: Corrado Sorbara
Costumes: Carla Vitaglione
Lights: Pasquale Vitiello
Photos: Gianni Biccari
Staging: Prampolini Studio

...Ed è da allora, da quel giorno, che della famosa Spada, non s’è ne hanno più notizie.
L’unica certa è che essa non è più nascosta sul Vecchio Ponte, non è più custodita tra nude pietre,ma è al sicuro tra i bambini di questa martoriata città...

Old pails, pats, crutches, a big drum, funnels, stairs, hats and jackets, twisted clothes transform themselves into the different characters of the performance, like suggestive puppets on string.
They are everyday objects which are dissociates from their usual function.
The story inspired by an ancient legend takes place in a very small East European village taken by an enemy army.
Three narrators come to the square of the village to tell and sell their stories: Bloody stories, stories of wandering Knights and poor and pure virgins, sensational novels, legends of bandits and lifes of the Saints.
Among these the legend of Saint Venceslao and the Prodigious Sword.

They tell that among the Bohemian people there is a Prodigious Sword hidden upon an old Bridge. The sword is waiting for Saint Venceslao who will lead the brave Knights of Blanik and put an end to the sufferings of the people.
But in the barracks of the enemy soldiers the Terrible General tells about a secret arm which can itself overwhelm all the army. The Soldiers Fridel and Simon are sent to inquire about this secret arm which the whole town is talking about. Suddenly a surprising fact happens: Anika and Jona find a sword while they are playing! It looks like the Sword of the legend. But how is it possible?
The Sword is hidden waiting for Venceslao, what’s the matter with the ancient legend? What will be the Saint’s will? But in the meantime the soldiers come...

The performance is a metaphor about childhood and about its possibilities to change society.
Childhood is considered the supreme good of a people. The music of Yhidhis tradition emphasizes, sometimes with joy sometimes with a touch of melancholy, the different parts of the performance.


LA MARIONETTA TOTO’

Theatre dedicated to the prince of laughter


A play by Aldo de Martino
and Violetta Ercolano
With: Aldo de Martino, Violetta Ercolano,
Puppets: Violetta Ercolano - Fabio Lastrucci
Stage and costumes: Carla Vitaglione
Lights and sounds: Gabriele Toralbo


In his inimitable and insuperable mimic Totò found inspiration in the Puppets Theatre and certainly in the «Opera dei Pupi», which at that time filled the town with dozens of theatres.
The performance is an imaginary show, a merry Revue with all its rites and myths: from Can-Can to the Sciantosa, from the Impersonator to the Tenor, to the unrestrained Corvo-Band, who gives a rock rendition of «’A Livella». But what happens if the Can-Can chorus girls are small monkeys, the famous Tenor Mister Chicchirichì is a cock and the unrestrained Band six demoniacal crows with guitars and drums?
It is a coloured and fanciful circus where the Prince moves with his usual attitude of conceited superiority. But there are also other characters who have made a great contribution to the history of the Italian cinema and theatre: Anna Magnani is an unrestrained «Geppina» from the film «Risate di Gioia»and an unforgettable Nino Taranto performs some sketches written by Totò.

The performance is a homage to a mask-character who manages to be relevant today like yesterday. Totò is a figure that belongs to the collective imaginary!
The exhbition «La Marionetta Totò» is linked to the performance. It deals with old film posters supported by shopes which reproduce a Totò inspired by the comic strip that was dedicated to the Prince in the Thirties.


PULCINELLATA

by and with Aldo de Martino

A little metaphysician Pulcinella suspended between earth and sky, an impertinent, exuberant, high-handed puppet...a new mask in its antiquity, foolish to such an extent that he scoffs at death and devil but so courageously fearful he wins in every situations. A Pulcinella in his toy theatre, a magical meeting place between the madness of the puppets and the audience. The puppeteer Aldo de Martino has created his own Pulcinella that plays with the public and with the other puppets changing every performance in a choral festival.

Pulcinella appears in front of the stage of the toy theatre and he presents his astonishing performance, he rises the curtain but a spiteful devil closes it again behind him. This is the very simple beginning of a series of gags and paradoxical situations which lead our hero to fall in with the terrible infernal prince Astarotte, who even transforms himself into a woman to come off best. But also in this story Pulcinella has two fundamental friends on his side: his stick and an incredible will to live...to sing...to dance...to love.
 

PULCINELLA E LA CASA MAGICA

Ovvero:

Sua discesa all’inferno e vttoriosa risalita


Text and stage management by Aldo de Martino

With: Stefano Moffa, Amedeo Ambrosino

Pulcinella Citrulo falls in love with the beautiful Teresina, daughter of the inn-owner Don Pancrazio Codadivacca and fiance of the young landowner Don Felice Sciosciammocca, boarder of the inn. Pulcinella disguised as a woman under the false name of Donna Baldassarra Cetrulo, takes lodging in the inn to look for secret of the wealth of his rival.
It is midnight and Pulcinella, hidden behind a curtain, sees Don Felice invoke no less than...the DEVIL!! Among whims, disguises, magical potions, true devils, a tangle unravels itself that will see our hero go to hell like a mythological hero.