Bertoldo nostro contemporaneo. Riscritture teatrali del Novecento

Abstract

The character of Bertoldo immediately established himself as one of the most powerful creations in our literature: he is the astute and wise villain, able to fascinate the court, who however at the same time distrust him. In the twentieth century, Bertoldo returns as the protagonist of a series of theatrical works, having perhaps exhausted his subversive energy, but not the comic one, and together outlining with his rustic figure and his country origins, a more genuine and healthy way of life than that fully urban of the twentieth century. Giovanni Cavicchioli, Massimo Dursi and Fulvio Tomizza are the three writers who in the past century have dedicated as many plays to the character invented by Giulio Cesare Croce. To these must be added, already in the 2000s, Francesco Freyrie for a staging by Marco Baliani. If one considers that Bertoldo is also the protagonist of three films and that the title (and a column) of one of the major humorous magazine of the twentieth century is consecrated to him, one will see how the vital charge of the Bolognese peasant has arrived (almost) intact on the threshold of the new millennium.