The anniversary edition starts on October 15th at 15:00 with a triple opening show: “Danze indiane” (“Indian dances” – by Pannalal’s Puppets), “Pulcinella, morte e miracoli” (“Pulcinella, deaths and miracles” – by the Teatro delle 12 lune), and “La magia delle ombre” (“Shadow’s magic” – by Valeria Guglietti), with Michel Poletti as ceremonies’ master. This is followed by the story of Pinocchio, told by a puppeteer, storyteller and musician, with “Di Pinocchio l’avventura” (“Pinocchio’s adventure”) by the Teatro delle 12 lune (16.10, at 11:00). “Ombre cinesi: leggende di Roma” (“Chinese shadows: Rome legends”), a performance of new textless numbers by the Argentinian puppeteer Valeria Guglietti, that ironically evokes characters from the ancient Rome (16.10, at 16:00).
The Festival continues with “La piccola talpa Bim” (“The little mole Bim”), performance by the Koekla company, aimed at younger children (19.10, at 15:00). On Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd of October, the Tuscan maestro Claudio Cinelli will present: “Fantasie e meraviglie” (“Fantasies and magnificences”) features the best sketches of his fifty-years repertoire, in which puppets and string marionettes creates amazing stories (22.19, at 15:00), and a surreal “Kabarett” with singing, music and marionettes (23.10, at 16:00). The Teatro Glug tells a famous Andersen’s fairy tale, namely “I vestiti nuovi dell’imperatore” (“The Emperor’s New Clothes”), for a baby audience (26.10, at 15:00). The Catalan puppeteer Jordi Bertran presents “Antologia” (“Anthology”), a show that has become a classic of string puppet theatre over 35 years (29.10, at 15:00), and five stories with guitar and marionettes in “Power point: le storie incantate di Jordi” (“Power Point: the enchanted stories of Jordi” – 30.10, at 16:00). Pinocchio is in the spotlight again: “Pinocchio in musica” (“Pinocchio in music”) by the Teatro del Drago, which brings on stage new techniques to a great show of large marionettes moved by sight (03.11, at 16:00). “Il Carnevale degli animali” (“Animals carnival”) by the French company Blin, which creates an imaginative carnival to the Camilla Saint-Saëns’s notes (04.11, at 16:00).
Finally, the string marionettes virtuosos of The Fifth Wheel bring two performances: “Il piccolo drago” (“The little dragon”) that takes us to prehistoric times among dinosaurs and cavemen (05.11, at 15:00), and the closing show “Il viaggio straordinario” (“The extraordinary journey”), performance without text and that with pictures and music transports us around the world (06.11, at 16:00).
The 40th edition of the International Festival of Marionettes is from 15.10 to 06.11 at the Teatro Foce in Lugano.
More information: palco.ch
