Previously presented as one of the Piccolo Teatro’s productions for the 2016/2017 season, Pinocchio, directed by Antonio Latella, returns to the stage.
The figure of the puppet created by Carlo Collodi is universal, it belongs to everyone, and everyone has their own, almost exclusive, memory. But what Latella presents is no fairy tale. The director takes on Pinocchio, trying to find aspects of Collodi’s character which have never been seen before, if they exist at all.
“We are used to thinking - explains Latella - that the puppet Pinocchio sees his own nose get longer every time he tells a lie; this is what we have been taught and this is what we have learned to believe. And yet even this is a lie told by adults. Pinocchio’s nose, in Collodi’s tale, grows on various occasions, but not always when he lies... At times, it grows because he is alive...”.
This re-reading provides ample space for the full drama of the relationship with Geppetto, a kind of missing father-figure: “There are few things more moving than the tireless attempts of this Pinocchio to build a past with his father, to justify his place by his side, while the adult world gives him no answers, pays him no attention, and creates only lies. (Repubblica)”.
The main character thus finds himself caught in a whirlwind of events like “a pawn in the intricate and grotesque game of human tragedy, the victim of a world which has still not taught him “anything good”, but also an unscrupulous torturer of those who are the very ones he should be grateful to: Geppetto and the Fairy” (Teatroecritica).

Due to the themes examined and the language used in some scenes, the play is not suitable for spectators under the age of 14.