Six Characters Looking for Pier Paolo. Black Jealousy.

Playing Roderigo became an exploration of tragicomedy, a study of manipulation and the pathos it creates. His surface-level desires for Desdemona and wealth provide opportunities for comedic exaggeration – the bumbling suitor, easily fleeced by Iago. Yet, the key challenge was maintaining a core of genuine longing and vulnerability beneath the absurdity. Each flicker of hope in Iago, each clumsy attempt at bravado, had to be sincere, making his ultimate downfall even more devastating.

The performance demanded a balance between physical comedy and stark emotional shifts. Slumped posture and exaggerated gestures emphasized his buffoonery, while subtle moments of quiet desperation hinted at the tragic figure he becomes. Roderigo's arc, while inherently ridiculous, is about being desperately wrong on all counts, a man seeking connection and repeatedly finding only self-destruction. His journey becomes both a source of dark humor and a cautionary tale, underscoring the play's larger themes of manipulation and misplaced trust.

Director’s note (Maurizio Mistretta):

The drama begins on a theatre stage under construction. The theatre’s director is watching Pasolini’s film “What are the Clouds?” to be inspired by the movie for the creation of his new show. The film is strongly engaging, but, suddenly, the arrival of a series of people abruptly interrupts it. Those people look unreal and weird and they present themselves as characters in search of an author. The enraged Director tries to send them away, but the characters are adamant: they must bring their story to life, a very dark story: a story of Dark Jealousy.

**Desdemona’s Death and Brabantio’s Suffering**

Six Characters in Search of Pier Paolo is an original theatrical production inspired by the two most beautiful masterpieces created by Pier Paolo Pasolini and Luigi Pirandello. The first masterpiece is the famous short movie “What are the Clouds?” by Pasolini. The second masterpiece is “6 Characters in Search of an Author” by Pirandello. The latter is famous for being the forefather of the so-called theatre in theatre concept, introducing a new type of scenic action that will mark a turning point in the entire Italian theatre scene to date – the birth of confidential theatre.

In his splendid and poetic short movie “What are the clouds?” Pasolini moves following patterns and languages loved by Pirandello, albeit adapted to the language of cinema. Pasolini, like Pirandello, shows us the double level of staging: on one hand, the tragedy represented by the puppet characters, and on the other hand, the perspective according to which the “spectator” would be only a falsely privileged observer. In fact, the audience is deprived of the possibility to both watch and perceive the dialogues and the pure actions of the characters.