edited by Letizia Quintavalla
illustrations by Abel Herrero
photographs by Pietro Bertora, Michele Lamanna
translation by Christiane Suter
L’arboreto Edizioni
Mondaino, November 2006
production manager: Fabio Biondi
project coordinator: Simonetta Piscaglia
in collaboration with Paolo Brancalion, Elisa Gardini, Manuela Marcatelli
copy editor: Sabrina Raggini
layout and graphics: Lucrezia Gismondi
Pages: 120
Binding: paperback
Size: 16 x 16 x 0,9 cm
Cover price: € 10,00
Language: Italian with consecutive French translation
ISBN: 978-88-902681-2-0
An important meeting for L’arboreto Edizioni, both unexpected and precious, with the tale of Il pinguino senza frac written by Silvio D’Arzo, and with the resulting theatre play by Teatro delle Briciole. From the page to the stage and back, Limpo is a new book about a fairy tale made for the theatre and about theatre made for fairy tales; old-fashioned and contemporary flavours are intertwined in this composition: they meet and dissolve into the limbo of dramaturgy, of poetry and auteur theatre.
Another love thought that the Arboreto dedicates to Simona.
From the page to the stage and back
“When ideas come to meet you, when they come looking for you, it’s a party.” “Reading Il pinguino senza frac by SilvioD’Arzo, was like discovering a novel disguised as fairy tale. Writing the stage adaptation was challenging, in order to preserve the quantity and the beauty of the many themes touched on in this work…” “This play is about a penguin, but it is also the testimony of a nowadays rare and precious kind of group-work. For all these reasons this play has given birth to an heir in the form of a book, dedicated to all of the fans of Silvio D’Arzo, to those adults who read fairy tales to kids, and to those looking for both wellbeing and unease within theatre, because art is indispensable for living.”
Letizia Quintavalla
The story
Small, white, poor and with no tuxedo: Limpo is a penguin who, sad and disheartened, gets away from penguin mom and dad and ventures out into the limitless and unknown North, in search of an answer to a single question: why is he without a dress? Little by little he learns that, faced with suffering and violence, all pups and cubs as well as baby humans, cry in the same way. Disconcerted, when he eventually returns home, he sees his sadness turning into surprise, finding out he’s wearing the most elegant tuxedo ever; a sign he has reached a knowledge made of experience and courage. An unforgettable and moving adventure for adults and for children, a great lesson of life by an author who is capable of investigating the slightest shade of being different, and of showing the richness of feeling that way.
The book
The theatre company of Teatro delle Briciole meets Silvio D’Arzo (1920-1950) – “adolescent genius” of the Italian literature, loved by Montale, Bertolucci, Bilenchi and, more recently, by Pasolini and Tondelli. In 1948 he writes Il pinguino senza frac, the story of Limpo who, born without black feathers on its back, goes through isolation, through the separation with its parents, through the pain of the world, “in order to arrive at the solidarity with the other beings, now perceived as its own kind, by virtue of having all been left out, of suffering and of not having a clear identity” (A. L. Lenzi). Limpo takes shape in Emilia – between Parma, the beating heart of Teatro delle Briciole, and Reggio Emilia, home-nest of Silvio D’Arzo. It breathes the dust of this land’s expectations and dreams and it results in the testimony of a collective work and in the throbbing theatrical speech.
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