La Macchina dei Sogni (“The Dream Machine”)

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SHORT HISTORY OF THE FESTIVAL

The “Dream Machine” festival was born in the spring of 1984 as a tribute to Giacomo Cuticchio’s fifty-year artistic career, and as a gesture of gratitude from his children to their father and teacher. Performances, exhibitions, and conferences alternated throughout a month-long program. The festival emerged as an event of extraordinary quality, devoid of pomp or emphasis.

It originated from the need to take stock of the puppet theatre tradition but quickly expanded — already in its second year — to include related practices: the cunto (traditional Sicilian storytelling), other forms of oral narration, street theatre, and genres that defy labels and boundaries. The preference has always been for a theatre of truth and poetry, with the main goal of educating the public in various techniques and disciplines of performance. Commercial and escapist theatre has always remained outside the scope of the festival.

For ten consecutive years, the festival took place in Palermo, reclaiming little-known public spaces such as Villa Filippina, the “Città dei Ragazzi”, the stables of Palazzo Butera, the former Falletta barracks, and the Castle of Maredolce. After a few editions in Sortino (SR) and then in Terrasini, the festival found a new home for several consecutive years in Polizzi Generosa (PA).

Each year, numerous groups and individual artists participate; up to three large 10-meter stages are set up, along with several smaller platforms suited for puppet theatre — each with its own lighting and sound equipment. The result is a landscape resonating with small and large events, with performances sometimes running simultaneously from afternoon until midnight.

The layout of alleys, squares, courtyards, and bagli (Sicilian manor courtyards) is brought to life by artists and enriched with scenographic and visual elements, encouraging a multi-sensory experience. Spectators can, if they wish, leave one story and step into another. A small, dazzling universe of creativity and invention.

Over the course of thirty-six editions, “The Dream Machine” has hosted more than 1,200 performances — not counting numerous exhibitions and installations of various kinds: video, music, and visual art. All of this is possible because the program is not filtered through agencies or impresarios. The contact with the artists is direct: most of them are personally known by Mimmo Cuticchio, met during festivals and showcases — or even in alleys, squares, and basements across Italy and the world.

In the afternoon and evening hours, the audience consists mostly of children and families, while late-night performances are aimed at adult audiences more interested in experimental and avant-garde theatre.

“The Dream Machine” is a festival that involves actors and spectators in a great celebration of theatre — a special kind of theatre: one of puppetry and storytelling, which by its very nature encourages the audience to become an active participant in the creation of the narrative, completing and enriching it with their imagination. Every year the festival proposes a different theme, and the performances — both hosted and produced — explore the theme in the most free and imaginative ways.

THE LAST EDITION – 2026

Racconti di Mare (Tales of the Sea)

The 43rd edition of “La Macchina dei Sogni” focuses on a single major event conceived and staged by Mimmo Cuticchio.
Inspired by Virgil’s Aeneid, the event is designed as a mosaic made up of many pieces, each of which helps to compose a broad and moving picture. Taking its cue from Virgil’s tale, it explores themes and narratives of our own time.
Not simply a performance, but an itinerant and immersive experience, weaving together spaces, words, music, gestures, and memories.
In the evocative setting of the Tonnara Florio in Palermo, located in the ancient seaside district of Arenella…

VISIT THE DEDICATED SECTION

EDITION 2025

La Furia e la Bellezza

Now in its 42nd edition, La Macchina dei Sogni confirms itself as one of the longest-running festivals dedicated to puppetry and storytelling. Founded and directed by Mimmo Cuticchio, the festival is a crossroads of memory, imagination, and active participation.
The theme chosen for the 2025 edition, The Fury and the Beauty, is intended as a key to interpreting our troubled present — a time marked by conflict, uncertainty, and transformation, but also by a deep need for beauty, for shared stories and visions.
The festival returns to the village of Polizzi Generosa, in the Madonie Park, where some of its most memorable editions were held — a symbolic and tangible place that welcomes the festival by transforming into a vibrant, participatory space…