Paolantoni in 'O Tello o...io', debut at De Filippo in Arzano

The show's tour includes 33 dates in different regions.

"O Tello o…io" is the new show by Francesco Paolantoni that debuts at the Eduardo De Filippo Theater in Arzano from today until March 3, 2023.

Also on stage are Stefano Sarcinelli, Arduino Speranza, Raffaele Esposito, Viola Forestiero, Felicia del Prete. The show is produced by Idue srl of Maurizio Marino and Stefano Sarcinelli, assistant director Nicola Miletti, sets Mauro Paradiso, costumes Anna Zuccarini, music Antonio Annona, stage photos Anna Camerlingo.

The show's tour includes 33 dates in Campania, Basilicata, Puglia, Calabria, Abruzzo, and Lazio. "A dramatic evening," the director's notes read, "is a show that, with a script inspired by the Commedia dell'Arte, a fast-paced performance, and a "theater within a theater" approach, tells the misadventures of an amateur company (all strictly on stage) who, in the first act, are busy rehearsing for a show that will premiere the following evening.

The text chosen by the director (confident that amateur companies, not having to suffer cuts to culture and entertainment, are the only resource for keeping the theater going) partly to distance himself from the classic Eduardian repertoire of amateur companies and partly because he wants to address the theme of jealousy, a feeling that usually tends to ruin relationships, is: Othello.

The first act unfolds amidst attempts to rehearse the play, delirious interpersonal discussions among the various actors, psychological dissertations on relationships, and despair at the news that the actor who was supposed to play the title role will no longer be coming. The only solution is for the director himself to play Othello, though he doesn't know the part. In the second act, with the stage divided in two—the play in progress on one side and the dressing rooms on the other—we will simultaneously witness both the merciless staging of Othello (with an inevitable, different ending that Shakespeare would never have imagined) and the bizarre events the actors face in the dressing rooms. The ending, besides being unpredictable, isn't a true ending, because..."