Notte Bianca | Pinocchio

What made Mister Geppetto, on a cold night in a small village in Tuscany, introduce Pinocchio to his little world? Was it the same yearning that Collodi felt the night he sat down by the fire to write a story about a wooden puppet who wanted to become a real boy? The fantastic story of Pinocchio will tap into the Geppetto and Collodi in every one of us, as interpreted by award-winning writer Pierre J. Mejlak, who will be introducing the mesmerizing performance ‘La vera storia di Pinocchio’ by the Teatro Piccolo di Milano.

Mejlak, a Maltese novelist and short story writer, is the winner of two National Book Awards, a Malta Literary Prize and the Sea of Words European Short Story Award. His first collection of short stories for adults, Qed Nistenniek Niezla max-Xita, was published to critical and popular acclaim in February 2009. His second collection of short stories will be published in 2011. Mejlak has read his work at various literary festivals, including the Biennale of Young European Artists in Macedonia, the Medina Intercultural Festival in Barcelona and the Sea of Words Gathering in Beirut.

Flavio Albanese gives a first-person account of the True Story of Pinocchio, accompanied by the famous music score written by Fiorenzo Carpi for Comencini’s TV film, and performed live on piano and accordion by Roberto Vacca. Using narration and nonsense rhymes, songs and anecdotes, The True Story of Pinocchio retraces the main events that led a simple log of wood to become a real-life child. The characters appear and disappear from the stage, at times impersonated by Flavio Albaniano himself performing alongside a gigantic Pinocchio puppet, and at other times evoked by theatrical magic.

It is a story for young and old, and particularly for ‘grown-up children’. Flavio Albanese first heard the classic story of Pinocchio from his grandmother. As she narrated, in the darkness of his room, Flavio saw images and heard sounds: the shadows of the furniture and the chandelier transformed themselves into characters: Mangiafuoco, the Cat, the Fox and the Whale. He remembers the deep fear, mixed with strong feelings of courage inspired by the words of the Fairy. Pinocchio ran, swam, jumped, flew and followed dark and dangerous roads, but always kept a light shining inside him, by which he was able to lead himself back to the place from where he had left.

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