
Where Italy was born
Cuntaterra Association / Pupi Italici (Abruzzo)
text and dramaturgy Girolamo Botta and Marcello Sacerdote
sets, construction and puppet maneuvering Girolamo Botta and Alessandra Guadagna
cunto, narration and music on stage Marcello Sacerdote
technical assistant Cristian Zulli
The play tells the story of the Social War that occurred in 91-88 B.C., which pitted various Italic peoples of the peninsula against the Roman Republic. The Italics-including the Marsi, Samnites, Peligni, Marrucini, Vestini, Frentani, Lucani, Campani, Piceni and several others-organized and allied themselves, creating a true nation, which in their language they called Viteliu, or Italy. Amidst battles, oaths, deceptions, daring and passions, the play alternates between the different expressive registers - epic, comic, poetic and tragic - proper to popular art theater. The staging is the result of intensive historical/cultural research, combined with the work of crafting, writing and composing, resulting in an unprecedented dramaturgy that is as faithful to the whim of imagination as it is to the philological truth of history.
