PINOCCHIO. WHAT IS A PERSON?

Teatro di Napoli & Interno5, Naples, Italy

Director: Davide Iodice

Neapolitan language with Hungarian and English subtitles

1 hours, without breaks.

The puppet Pinocchio has provided a kind of symbolic kinship with the children in our varied group, many of whom suffer from a range of conditions such as Asperger’s syndrome, Down’s syndrome, Williams’ syndrome, and different forms of autism. And he belongs to the same family as those children who have miraculously escaped from crime, or are in the process of redefining their lives after being released from prison, which they either couldn’t or didn’t know how to avoid.

Along with the other symbolic characters that feature in his tale, Pinocchio seems to personify all the incomprehensible or misunderstood features of teenage life, whose torments – at times steeped in joyful fury, at others appearing dark and irredeemable – are the reflection of an adult society that is either a caricature of itself or in ruin. Pinocchio embodies difference, and all those who are different, with their anarchic and disruptive energy.

In an earlier draft, Pinocchio’s story ended with the puppet hanging itself, as if to suggest there was no way out. It was then revised by Carlo Collodi with a final, conciliatory, benevolent transformation into a child, into a person. Fine. But what is a person? The work of redefining identities through the instrument of Art, the centrality of the person and his fragilities, are the principles at the basis of the pedagogy of Scuola Elementare del Teatro, Conservatorio Popolare per le Arti della Scena for the stage arts.

This scenic study brings on stage some students of the Conservatorio Popolare, together with their parents, and also marks the launch of the Compagnia, with which the Scuola Elementare del Teatro builds a new piece of its community history.

The Neapolitan Pinocchio, which was also selected for the Venice Biennale programme, received the Special Prize of the prestigious Italian Ubu Theatre Awards in 2024.

Actors:

Giorgio Albero, Gaetano Balzano, Danilo Blaquier, Federico Caccese, Stefano Cocifoglia, Giuseppe De Cesare, Simona De Cesare, Patrizia De Rosa, Gianluca De Stefano, Paola Delli Paoli, Chiara Alina Di Sarno, Ciro Esposito, Aliù Fofana, Cynthia Fiumanò, Vincenzo Iaquinangelo, Marino Mazzei, Serena Mazzei, Giuseppina Oliva, Ariele Pone, Tommaso Renzuto Iodice, Eleonora Ricciardi, Giovanna Silvestri, Jurij Tognaccini, Renato Tognaccini

Creators:

Movement training and study: Chiara Alborino and Lia Gusein-Zad

Stage designer: Ivan Gordiano Borrelli

Costume designer: Daniela Salernitano, Federica Ferreri

Choreographer: Chiara Alborino

Masks: Tiziano Fario, Davide Iodice

Sound technician: Luigi Di Martino

Lighting technician: Simone Picardi

Still photographer: Renato Esposito

Production manager: Hilenia De Falco

International Tour Manager: Danilo Soddu

Thanks to: Gariele D’Elia, Natalia Di Vivo, Tonia Persico, Ilaria Scarano

Creative staff:

Concept, dramaturgy, direction, set design, lighting: Davide Iodice

Company: Scuola elementare del teatro

Production: Interno 5 and Teatro di Napoli – Teatro Nazionale

Director

Davide Iodice

Kaszás Attila Stage

7 May 2026, 19:00

Not available

Davide Iodice

He graduated as a director at the “Silvio D’Amico” Accademia Nazionale d’Arte Drammatica in Rome under Andrea Camilleri’s supervision. Jodice was among the founders of the drama group libera mente of which he was artistic director. He co-directed the Centro di Ricerca Teatro Nuovo in Naples, from 1995 to 2000. He created and was artistic director of the Scuola Elementare del Teatro, a popular conservatoire for the scenic arts, an arts and social inclusion project. He is manager of the arts and social inclusion projects of the Teatro Trianon Viviani. He collaborated, with various assignments, with Carmelo Bene, Leo De Berardinis, Carlo Cecchi, Roberto De Simone and with dancers and performers from Pina Bausch’s Tanz Theater, Maguy Marin’s Companie and Mark Morris’s Dance Group. He worked and is working with drama in different disadvantaged locations, such as the Ospedale Psichiatrico S. Maria della Pietà in Rome, in Volterra, Giudecca and Nola correctional institutions, in Naple public dormitory and in Secondigliano OPG (high-security psychiatric hospital). His scenic and educational work was produced and hosted in Italy and France, U.K, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden as well. He created radio works for Rai Radio3 with the collaboration of Goffredo Fofi and Maurizio Braucci, the collective docufilm “Com’è bella la città”, with Roberta Torre, Pasquale Pozzessere, Giovanni Maderna; he is the main character and author of the scenic writing in “Gelsomina Verde” docufilm, directed by Massimiliano Pacifico. Iodice’s dramatic work is the subject of essays in national and international books and specialist magazines and of graduation and doctorate dissertations at various universities and art schools such as Napoli, Salerno, Milano, Bologna, Pisa, Palermo, Pavia, Cagliari, Siena. The volume “La poetica teatrale di Davide Iodice, by Marina Sorge has been recently published by Ediz. Università di Napoli L’Orientale.

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