La Macchina dei Sogni
Sulle vie dell’inferno
On the ways of hell
Palermo October 21-31, 2021
Oct. 21-31, Teatro dei Pupi/Laboratorio – Via Bara 95/48
Oct. 21-28, Museo Archeologico Regionale A. Salinas – Piazza Olivella
Oct. 29-31, Real Teatro Santa Cecilia – Via Piccola del Teatro S. Cecilia 5
The 38th edition of La Macchina dei Sogni pays homage to Dante Alighieri on the 700th anniversary of his death with a diverse program of initiatives. Inspired by the esoteric recurrence of the numbers 3 and 9 within the Divine Comedy, we have divided the Festival into three parts: 3 are the chosen locations for the events, 3 are the puppet theater performances presented by three different companies, 3 are the performances of our multimedia show, 3 are the days of the workshop, while 9 are the installations of the exhibition, 9 are the unpublished stories by nine writers to whom we asked to focus on 9 themes—love, betrayal, exile, pity, politics, knowledge, women, vision, memory—that we identified in Dante’s work and that build, between history and current events, a parallel journey to the one narrated by Dante.
Among prose, poetry, and tragedy, through the suggestions of current events, 3 actors—Viola Graziosi, Graziano Piazza, and Massimo Verdastro—will help us penetrate the feelings of the characters described in the stories by Edoardo Albinati, Giosuè Calaciura, Maria Grazia Calandrone, Antonella Lattanzi, Marco Lodoli, Melania Mazzucco, Beatrice Monroy, Lorenzo Pavolini, and Giorgio Vasta.
Mimmo Cuticchio’s new show, named after the project, is a very unique transposition of Dante’s Inferno that intertwines his personal experiences and his history as a theater artist. The movements of the puppets, captured by the camera of Daniele Ciprì, who coordinated the lights and shadows of the images in accordance with the sense that Mimmo Cuticchio intended to give to the dramaturgy of gestures, are accompanied by the original music of Giacomo Cuticchio, while Alfonso Veneroso interprets the verses of the supreme poet, and Cuticchio himself evokes Dante’s imagery with his storytelling.
The puppet theater is represented by the marionettes and drawn theater of Gek Tessaro from Verona, the Carlo Colla & Figli company from Milan, and the guarattelle of Bruno Leone from Naples. Finally, the workshop for actors and narrators, led by Japanese actor Hall Yamanouchi and inspired by the third canticle of the Comedy, proposes to live Dante’s imaginative world through one’s own body.
CALENDAR
All the events on the calendar are free admission except for the events scheduled for days 29, 30 and 31 for which there is an entrance fee of €2.
To be able to participate in any of the events one must make reservations by phone: 3207090129
TEATRO DEI PUPI / LABORATORIO
OCTOBER 21 to 31
NATI PER FINIRE ALL’INFERNO
BORN TO END IN HELL
Exhibition of puppets and scenic elements made for the show
Sulle vie dell’Inferno
MUSEO ARCHEOLOGICO REGIONALE A. SALINAS
OCTOBER 21, 22, 23
10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
L’AMOR CHE MOVE IL SOLE E L’ALTRE STELLE
THE LOVE THAT MOVES THE SUN AND OTHER STARS
Theater workshop led by Hal Yamanouchi
OCTOBER 24
11:00 a.m.
PARADISO DI DANTE IN UN BAR
DANTE’S PARADISE IN A BAR
Workshop
REAL TEATRO SANTA CECILIA
OCTOBER 29, 30, 31
October 29 and 30, 9:00 p.m.
October 31, 6:00 p.m.
SULLE VIE DELL’INFERNO
ON THE WAYS OF HELL
show of Mimmo Cuticchio
MUSEO ARCHEOLOGICO REGIONALE A. SALINAS
OCTOBER 26
6:00 p.m.
LA POLITICA, LA PIETÀ, LA CONOSCENZA
POLITICS, PIETY, KNOWLEDGE
Massimo Verdastro reads
Il girone dei morti insepolti (The circle of the unburied dead) by Giosuè Calaciura
Limbo – Musical interlude
The Bass Quartet
Graziano Piazza reads
Pietà (Mercy) by Marco Lodoli
Il pozzo dei giganti (The well of giants) – Musical interlude
The Bass Quartet
Viola Graziosi reads
Canto delle statue sottomarine (Song of the underwater statues)
by Maria Grazia Calandrone
Meeting with writers
Giosuè Calaciura and Maria Grazia Calandrone
9:00 p.m.
CARNET DE VOYAGE
Istantanee dall’inferno della Commedia (Snapshots from the hell of Comedy)
show by Gek Tessaro
MUSEO ARCHEOLOGICO REGIONALE A. SALINAS
Piazza Olivella
OCTOBER 27
6 p.m.
L’AMORE, LA VISIONARIETÀ, IL TRADIMENTO
LOVE, VISION, BETRAYAL
Viola Graziosi reads
Amor dantesco (Dante’s love) by Lorenzo Pavolini
Caron Dimonio – Musical interlude
The Bass Quartet
Massimo Verdastro reads
Kaddish dell’errante e del suo dolore (Kaddish of the wanderer and his pain) by Beatrice Monroy
I traditori – Musical interlude
The Bass Quartet
Viola Graziosi and Graziano Piazza read
Tradimento (Betrayal) by Antonella Lattanzi
Meeting with writers
Beatrice Monroy and Lorenzo Pavolini
9.00 p.m.
DANTE DELLE MARIONETTE
DANTE OF THE PUPPETS
show of the
Compagnia Marionettistica Carlo Colla & Figli
OCTOBER 28
6:00 p.m.
LE DONNE, L’ESILIO, LE CATACOMBE
WOMEN, EXILE, THE CATACOMBS
Viola Graziosi, Graziano Piazza, Massimo Verdastro read
Fiamma D’amore (Flame Of Love) by Edoardo Albinati
Virgilio – Musical interlude
The Bass Quartet
Viola Graziosi reads
I dissidenti (The dissenters) by Melania Mazzucco
Lucifero – Musical interlude
The Bass Quartet
Graziano Piazza e Massimo Verdastro read
I putti, i morti (I putti, i morti) by Giorgio Vasta
Meeting with writers
Edoardo Albinati and Giorgio Vasta
9:00 p.m.
NEL MEZZO DEL TEATRIN DI NOSTRA VITA
IN THE MIDST OF THE TEATRIN OF OUR LIFE
show by Bruno Leone
SHOWS
Gek Tessaro
CARNET DE VOYAGE
Istantanee dall’inferno della commedia
The show aspires to make some of Dante’s verses “visible” through a gallery of environments, atmospheres, and portraits created in real-time. The journey thus also becomes a visual path of construction, a progression of signs and drawings, of figures that are born, completed, and transformed, guiding us to meet the most extravagant characters of the Comedy.
Compagnia Marionettistica Carlo Colla & Figli
DANTE DELLE MARIONETTE
The event, aimed at both young people and adults, combines the tradition of Italian Puppet Theater and Dante’s poetics. The marionettes of Carlo Colla & Figli, manipulated visibly with short strings, illustrate various scenes from the Comedy, providing a concrete example of how Dante’s imaginative world has contributed to the evolution of one of the excellences of Italian theater.
Casa delle Guarattelle
NEL MEZZO DEL TEATRIN DI NOSTRA VITA
Pulcinella nell’Inferno, Purgatorio e Paradiso delle Guarattelle
Pulcinella gets lost in a dark forest where he meets Dante, who, in order to find a way out, accompanies him to Hell. Here, after crossing the Acheron on Charon’s boat, Pulcinella encounters and battles first Cerberus and then the devil Farfariello, characters reminiscent of the dog and the devil from the guarattelle repertoire.
Compagnia Figli d’Arte Cuticchio
SULLE VIE DELL’INFERNO
Among the puppets hanging in the workshop, there is one that has always played the role of the character Ariodante in the story of Ginevra of Scotland. Making his way through the puppets, he reaches the proscenium of the theater where the backdrop of a dark forest is set up. He removes Ariodante’s cloak, revealing himself to be Dante. It is not explicit what prompted him to leave his place, perhaps the desire to celebrate the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death.
WORKSHOP
L’AMORE CHE MOVE IL SOLE E L’ALTRE STELLE
“Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradise are within us”, explains Yamanouchi. Through our choices, we move in one direction or another. We embrace and caress our body, accepting its laments and sighs as if they were a song. Calm and agitation are pauses in the music of our body and soul.
EXHIBITION
NATI PER FINIRE ALL’INFERNO
Nine small installations present some of the characters created for the show Sulle vie dell’Inferno (On the Paths of Hell), foremost among them Dante and Virgil. Alongside them, we will find the women (Beatrice, St. Lucia, the Madonna), Charon and the boat of the damned, the Poets (Homer, Horace, Ovid, Lucan), Paolo and Francesca, the Centaurs (Chiron and Nessus), Pier delle Vigne, Farinata degli Uberti, Ulysses, and Lucifer.
THE STORIES | THE READINGS
Actors: Viola Graziosi, Graziano Piazza and Massimo Verdastro
IL GIRONE DEI MORTI INSEPOLTI
by Giosuè Calaciura
Giosuè Calaciura tackles a topic of burning political and social relevance in a visionary re-emergence of the voices of the dead.
PIETÀ
by Marco Lodoli
Pity, or perhaps more accurately the inability to feel it, is the core of Marco Lodoli’s story. The protagonist, overwhelmed by debt, literally sells years of his life to a loan shark, the malevolent actor in this sad tale.
CANTO DELLE STATUE SOTTOMARINE
by Maria Grazia Calandrone
Maria Grazia Calandrone entrusts the berte, enigmatic migratory birds with their haunting and alluring call, with the task of becoming a metaphor for the desire for knowledge and the challenge of the unknown.
AMORE DANTESCO
by Lorenzo Pavolini
Lorenzo Pavolini decides to tell the story of love in the time of Covid, when for two teenagers, a tender kiss exchanged becomes “galeotto,” perhaps more for the desire of rediscovered physical contact than for love.
KADDISH DELL’ERRANTE E DEL SUO DOLORE
by Beatrice Monroy
Of poignant memories, of journeys, of places, of martyrdoms, of young persecuted individuals who had chosen the new faith, an endless chain of names, faces, and bodies that will pass from earthly hell into eternal peace.
TRADIMENTO
by Antonella Lattanzi
Is omission, not telling everything about oneself to a loved one, considered a form of betrayal? Antonella Lattanzi confronts us readers with these questions, highlighting the awareness of her story’s protagonist that lying to others is often just a habit of lying to oneself.
FIAMMA D’AMORE
by Edoardo Albinati
Heart-wrenching is the voice of Dido who, in Edoardo Albinati’s retelling, is ready to do anything to avoid losing her beloved Aeneas. She is willing to forego being a wife, renounce the title of spouse, live as a guest losing the prerogatives of her status, and ultimately take her own life.
I DISSIDENTI
by Melania Mazzucco
Melania Mazzucco has chosen to focus on exile. As a high school student who “loved the damned of the Inferno,” she speaks of an educational journey that leads her to understand how revolutionary the power of language can be, especially for those considered “dissidents”.
I PUTTI, I MORTI
by Giorgio Vasta
Giorgio Vasta has taken on the task of making two contrasting souls of Palermo converse: the “joyfully wild” nature of the many cherubs inhabiting the city’s Oratories and the dark and somber atmosphere that hovers in the Capuchin Crypt.
Il miglior libro scritto dagli uomini
Jorge Luis Borges
La Macchina dei Sogni 2021 is a very special edition. Special because, on the 700th anniversary of his death, it is dedicated to Dante Alighieri, the supreme poet who, with his Comedìa, to which Boccaccio added the adjective “divine,” was able to unify the inner and outer worlds, precisely when everything was taken from him—city, political activity, affections, resources—while he was under a death sentence.
Special also because it is dedicated to the first canticle of the Divine Comedy, which remains one of the greatest and still relevant poems in world literature, capable of opening a window today on the great themes of humanity just as when it was written.
The universal values of justice, friendship, respect, responsibility, freedom, and love, which we find among the verses of the three canticles, are, today as yesterday, overshadowed by power plays and various interests, just as the evils of society against which Dante vehemently railed are still the main causes of the social malaise that afflicts our times.
As contemporary stage artists, this year we could not help but dedicate ourselves to “the best book written by men,” as Borges defined it, and we do so through a special project titled On the Paths of Hell, conceived by Mimmo Cuticchio, a project that gives shape to our dream.
Both the Divine Comedy and the Opera dei Pupi have managed to withstand the instability and adversities of the centuries, arriving to us with their characteristics intact. The Opera dei Pupi, at least the one with which Mimmo Cuticchio is identified, is a centuries-old tradition that is never identical to itself, transforming with the flow of generations. It constantly renews itself, yet preserves and passes on the tradition. Cuticchio, recognized as the foremost exponent of the Opera dei Pupi, demonstrates in his work an unwavering faith and passion, much like the passion that infuses every line of Dante’s poem. Like every passionate person, Mimmo Cuticchio is never satisfied with what he loves; hence, his constant quest generates a theater always open to new ideas and different perspectives.
His relentless experimentation within the tradition of the Opera dei Pupi has, for many years, pushed him to break out of the usual molds to tell new stories that no longer belong solely to epic chivalry but create new characters beyond the classical repertoire.
The project we present here is very complex. As always, La Macchina dei Sogni offers a program of varied initiatives—encompassing theater, music, exhibitions, and workshops—yet all connected by a single theme, a common thread that characterizes the entire festival and that this year has an “esoteric” connotation derived from Dante’s Comedy: the recurrence of the numbers 3 and 9 and their multiples.
As is well known, the canticles of the poem are three; Hell is divided into nine circles, Purgatory into nine terraces, and Paradise into nine spheres; the verses are composed of terza rima (three-line stanzas of hendecasyllabic lines), three are the blessed women who originate the otherworldly journey (Mary, Lucia, Beatrice), and finally, it is the vision of the Holy Trinity that concludes Dante’s journey.
Thus, inspired by this numerical consonance, the Festival is divided into three parts: three are the festival locations, three are the puppet theater performances by three different companies, three are the performances of our multimedia show, and three are the days of the workshop. Additionally, nine are the Sicilian stages we have identified and linked to the stories told in Hell, nine are the exhibition stations, and nine are the unpublished stories by nine writers whom we asked to focus on nine themes that we have identified in Dante’s work.
Elisa Cuticchio
INSIGHT
In this new production, which shares its name with the overall project, Mimmo Cuticchio assumes the role of a clear-headed and detached narrator. Like Virgil, he guides us through this unique transposition of the Inferno, set in a Sicilian context, where the wonder and “lightness” of the puppets infuse the Dantean narrative with fresh nuances, making it both contemporary and universal. Mimmo Cuticchio’s Opera dei Pupi, Daniele Ciprì’s cinematography, and the live music of Giacomo Cuticchio achieve a surprising symbiosis in this work, creating an original scenic reality. The images reveal unexplored territories, filtered through the dreamlike vision of Mimmo the director, while the story of the damned is brought to life by the verses interpreted by actor Alfonso Veneroso and Mimmo Cuticchio’s cunto, evoking a vividly colored imaginary world.
Like a silent film, the 17 sequences envisioned by Cuticchio unfold from start to finish, within the small proscenium of the puppets and on the large stage, based on the scenic conception and the free imagination of the oprante-cuntista. Our desire to overlay the journey of the first canticle onto certain locations in the nine provinces of Sicily was realized thanks to the filmed contributions of directors Chiara Andrich and Andrea Mura. The intent to find analogies between some evocative Sicilian locations and the environments described in the Inferno found a synthesis in the poetic accords that Cuticchio managed to compose. For instance, in the cave on Monte Pellegrino, Dante sees in a flashback Beatrice and Lucia, but also Santa Rosalia, the patron saint of our Palermo.
Moreover, the conflict between the White and Black factions described by Dante in the third circle is transposed into the battles between the puppets, who fall and rise again continuously. The wrathful and the slothful, described in the fifth circle, are represented by the paladin Orlando, who, mad with love for the lost Angelica, throws down his arms and tears off his clothes, much like the damned who strike not only with their hands but with their heads, chests, and feet, tearing each other to pieces with their teeth. The giants guarding the eighth and ninth circles, whom Dante mistakes for towers due to their height and power, are represented by the towering Catanese puppets, imposing and haughty, giants compared to our Palermo puppets, and even more so to the miniature puppets of Dante and Virgil, who accompany us throughout the journey and were crafted by Cuticchio and his collaborators.
In summary, behind this show lies a complex work of craftsmanship and technology, dramaturgy, and direction, manifested in the “craft” of the oprante. It is brought to the stage with a dual language, the lofty language of Dante and the Sicilian dialect of the cunto, serving a journey through the realm of shadows.
Love, betrayal, exile, pity, politics, knowledge, women, vision, memory are some of the conflicting feelings and passions we have identified within the Comedy that concern us all, as at least once in our lives we have set aside reason, chased an impossible love, forgotten someone or something, been forced to leave our loved ones, our home, our city…
To demonstrate the relevance of the poem, we asked nine writers to create unpublished texts inspired by Dante’s verses: Edoardo Albinati, Giosuè Calaciura, Maria Grazia Calandrone, Antonella Lattanzi, Marco Lodoli, Melania Mazzucco, Beatrice Monroy, Lorenzo Pavolini, Giorgio Vasta. Each of them wrote a short story inspired by one of the emotions we identified to construct, between history and the present, a parallel journey to the one narrated by Dante.
As expected, each writer’s style is different, but the images they narrate are equally vivid and effective. We wish to share these stories with the public in the spaces of the Salinas Museum, directed by Caterina Greco, through the interpretation of three excellent actors: Viola Graziosi, Graziano Piazza, and Massimo Verdastro. Their stage presence and their way of interpreting will guide us through the stories, helping us penetrate the emotions, fragilities, and expressiveness of the characters. The readings will be followed by a meeting with the authors, led by Monica D’Onofrio, director and radio host of Rai Radio 3.
Conducted by the Japanese actor, voice actor, mime, and choreographer Hal Yamanouchi, the workshop is inspired by Dante’s Paradiso. Starting from the reading of some verses from the third canticle of the Divine Comedy, the workshop will unfold over three days through physical-spiritual exercises, aiming to cultivate psychophysical well-being and the spirit of play. Specifically, Yamanouchi will lead participants through exercises designed to regenerate the body, voice, and mind.
Participants can join actively or as observers. The workshop will culminate in a public presentation titled Paradiso di Dante in un bar (Dante’s Paradise in a Bar).
More than an exhibition, it could be defined as nine small installations to present some of the characters we created for the show “On the Paths of Hell,” foremost among them Dante and Virgil.
Alongside them, we will find the women (Beatrice, St. Lucia, the Madonna), Charon and the boat of the damned, the Poets (Homer, Horace, Ovid, Lucan), Paolo and Francesca, the Centaurs (Chiron and Nessus), Pier delle Vigne, Farinata degli Uberti, Ulysses, and Lucifer.
The puppet theater will be represented by the marionettes of the Carlo Colla & Figli company from Milan, the guarattelle of Bruno Leone from Naples, and the drawn theater of Gek Tessaro from Verona.
The shows are aimed at both young people and adults. They combine the tradition of puppet theater with Dante’s poetics. In the proposed performances, the imaginative aspect holds primary importance. The universal language inherent in the oldest figures of our Italian artistic heritage serves Dante’s Inferno on the 700th anniversary of his death.
