big five
a savana big animals show
in event of rain, the performance will take place at Auditorium Biagio Marin
Where does a globetrotting multi-instrumentalist find the inspiration for his solos?
He certainly seeks it here, in the savannah, in a ‘wooden, dreamlike Africa’: in the realm of the Big Five. Luca Tapino, musician and clown, reinterprets the show originally staged by Gigio Brunello in 1999 while touring the villages of Mozambique, and subsequently presented at festivals in Italy and other countries.
The main characters in The Big Five are wooden animal sculptures fitted with moving parts and musical devices, poetic and twisted copies of the wild, a mirage for imaginary and actual explorers dreaming of zebra-guitars and diatonic crocodiles, with hypnotic eyes that never seem to rest.
The stories: the journey of a family of ducks inside the crocodile’s belly; the desperate love of the nameless man for a zebra called Uacca; the Grand Tour of a young rhinoceros who dreams of snow and his journey up Mount Kilimanjaro.
With Luca Tapino
By Gigio Brunello
Directed by Gyula Molnar
Original paintings, sculptures and music by Gigio Brunello
Gigio Brunello was born in San Polo di Piave on May 21, 1951. Since 1978, he has worked as a playwright for puppet and prose theatre, an actor, a puppeteer, and an innovator exploring new possibilities for traditional booth theatre (teatro in baracca). Known for creating high-level dramaturgy for booth theatre, over the years he has presented original shows to the public as well as adaptations of classics—from Goldoni to Nievo, Büchner to Shakespeare, and Leopardi.
For his experimental and innovative work in puppet theatre, he has received numerous awards both in Italy and abroad, where many of his works have been translated and performed: Eolo Awards (2012 and 2009), Puppets fest Gorizia (2003), Sirena d’oro (2002), Gran Prix Festival Internazionale di Bielorussia (2000), Silvano d’oro (1998), and Marionetta d’oro (1997).
His long-standing collaboration with Gyula Molnàr produced shows that revolutionized traditional figure theatre. In 2002, Macbeth all’improvviso, a puppet show freely adapted from William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, won the Premio Nazionale Critici di Teatro and the Premio Sirena d’oro at the Festival Internazionale dei Burattini e delle Figure Arrivano dal Mare!.
A collection of his play scripts is published in the volume Tragedie e commedie per tavoli e baracche (De Bastiani Editore, 2018). Two new shows, Il mago Balaton and Il pane quotidiano, premiered at the Carnevale dei Ragazzi della Biennale di Venezia 2024.