NTC. Pinocchio returns on stage and celebrates its 10th anniversary

With the beginning of the new year, Pinocchio, the historic work of the company Pilar Ternera/NTC with the direction of Francesco Cortoni, returns to the Nuovo Teatro delle Commedie. Historic, because this year Pinocchio celebrates 10 years since its debut, and since then it has been performed more than 60 times, always sold out. A long duration for this itinerant work, which takes the audience on a captivating journey into the world of Collodi in the spaces of the Nuovo Teatro delle Commedie.

Pinocchio is the story of a journey and from this dimension of travel in 2014 comes the idea of Francesco Cortoni, who believes that talking about Pinocchio means not being still, Pinocchio cannot stand still, Pinocchio runs away, Pinocchio runs away from school, runs away from the police and is caught again, but all in all Pinocchio is on the move and the audience can only follow him if they want to be part of his many adventures.

“The strength of the show,” says the director, “lies in the willingness not to betray the essence of Collodi’s novel, the text and the dramaturgy, in fact, have been very little revised and the words and characterizations of the characters adhere to the Collodi’s text, the only poetic license is the figure of the Cricket, a guide for this picaresque journey who accompanies the audience with a fun southern accent. In Pinocchio there is a very precise and calibrated interpretation that guides the work of the company aimed at children, and in the choice of music that is never banal, alternating between classical, dark, and contemporary music, usually difficult to combine with a children’s theater show.”

The acting, the scenes, and the carefully crafted settings make the show appeal to a family audience, including children and grandparents, who have participated in large numbers over the years, appreciating a show that allows them to relive memories from their childhood.

Since its debut in 2014, the show has grown a lot, and as often happens in productions that involve many actors, some of them have changed, so together with Alessia Cespuglio in the role of Pinocchio, Silvia Lemmi as the Cricket, Beppe Ranucci as Geppetto, Marco Fiorentini as Mangiafuoco, Elisa Ranucci in the role of the fairy, Matteo Ceccantini as Lucignolo, and Carlo Salvador making his debut this year as Mastro Ciliegia will be on stage. Also, Francesco Cortoni will once again take on the role of actor and play the Fox.

Pinocchio is the show that best represents the work that Pilar Ternera carries out in the territory, both with proposals for children and new generations, and with work in the communities, involving the children from the theater courses of NTC in the creation of the Land of Toys. It is also because it involves the historic core of the company in the creation of this great story, along with actors who have participated in different productions of Pilar Ternera over the years, creating a sense of a theater company as a big family, a concept that is now lost. And the aspect of family is a very beautiful characteristic of Cortoni’s show; in fact, if the show has grown, so have its protagonists, some have gotten married, become parents, and their daughters have been part of the Pinocchio family since the age of 3, growing up in the Land of Toys.