I carry within me a familiar image of Totò. His face makes me smile, his grimaces make me think. I have freely passed through his considerations on life, on women, on his desire for calm, on the difficult condition of being a comedian.
Thoughts sometimes in contrast with his character. Two very different souls, in the same body, Totò the actor and Antonio De Curtis the man. On stage they tease each other, contaminate each other, feed each other, between life and theater, until they merge.
When Totò became almost completely blind he appeared to Fellini as “… a very sweet ghost … a disembodied little being …”.
I used texts of various kinds: an excerpt from the show Volumineide, where Pinocchio, pulled by the strings of politics, becomes a puppet in the land of toys, splinters from Petrolini, the monologue Lettera d’amore by Karl Valentin, a memory of Federico Fellini, La livella to dialogue with his desire to return from cinema to theatre.
“I still have strong memories of working with Leo de Berardinis who, with Totò Prince of Denmark, already tackled our hero admirably. Likewise, the stories about my grandfather, who was a close friend of Totò, continue to inspire my storytelling.”
Marco Manchisi
