May 10 th, 8 p. m.
Croatian Cultural Centre Sušak
Teatrolmmagine,
Venezia, Italia

L’AMORE DELLE TRE MELARANCE/THE LOVE FOR THREE ORANGES

Adapted and directed by Pino Costalunga

ISTITUTO ITALIANO DI CULTURA DI ZAGABRIA

A group of actors of various provenance, who gather around common projects with the aim to revitalise and revaluate the commedia dell’arte – a genre deeply rooted in Italian and, above all, Venetian culture. By permanently exploring the foundations of commedia, those of drama, pantomime and the use of masks, through a variety of methods of improvisation and interpretation, they approach their goal.

The characters and the plot are typical of the commedia dell’arte: an unhappy prince (obsessed by demons), a wicked witch, a “distinguished and respected minister” (yet slightly shallow-brained), and a servile but ingenious servant – all of them acting in the manner of the commedia; they leap and run across the stage, they talk in a falsetto, all their gestures are overacted, all their emotions maximally simplified. Yet, they use very modern language, they wink at the audience when alluding to contemporary events … proving, thus, that the eighteenth-century philistine laughs at the same things that amuse the contemporary employee…