Harlequin Mute with Fright

One of the most frequently performed canovacci in Paris in the early 18th century, here revived for the first time in modern times, The mute for fear is a great tribute to the Commedia dell’Arte and to the all-Italian ability to make a virtue out of necessity.
1716. After some fifteen years of enforced exile, the Comici Italiani finally return to be protagonists of the Parisian theatre, and they do so with a respectable company! Luigi Riccoboni in art Lelio, head of the troupe, surrounds himself with the best performers from the boot including, for the first time in France, the Vicenza-born Harlequin Tommaso Visentini (nomen omen), ready to replace the late and beloved Evaristo Gherardi. But Visentini did not speak French, an unforgivable failing for the capital's audience. And it is here that Riccoboni's genius emerges in inventing an original plot where the servant from Bergamo becomes mute… out of fright!
A show where play, invention, love, fear and drama mingle amid the unmovable grimaces of the masks. Where plots entangle on the equivocal and slowly unravel between the fingers of the characters. But if these slender plots, if this surreal and fantastic world, a distant echo of an Italian theatrical splendour, an eclectic balancing act on the edge of history and tradition, if these ethereal figures allow us to abandon ourselves to a weightless and timeless joy, perhaps we will find a shred of poetry in that very moment.

Program and cast

Duration 2 hours and 20 minutes including interval

inspired by the plot Arlequin muet par crainte by Luigi Riccoboni

original script and direction Marco Zoppello
assistant director Francesca Botti

with (in alphabetical order) Sara Allevi, Katiuscia Bonato, Marie Coutance, Matteo Cremon, Michele Mori, Stefano Rota, Pierdomenico Simone, Maria Luisa Zaltron and Marco Zoppello

scenography Alberto Nonnato
costumes Licia Lucchese
lighting design Matteo Pozzobon and Paolo Pollo Rodighiero
masks Stefano Perocco di Meduna
musical consulting Ilaria Fantin
makeup and hairdressing Carolina Cubria
duels Massimiliano Cutrera
masquerade assistant Tullia Dalle Carbonare

production Stivalaccio Teatro, TSV – Teatro Nazionale, Teatro Stabile di Bolzano and Teatro Stabile di Verona
with the support of Fondazione Teatro Comunale Città di Vicenza and Fondazione Teatro Civico di Schio