Dream of an Enchanted Night by Peppe Barra at Delle Palme, magical reinterpretation of the Pentamerone by Basile [Review]

Peppe Barra transports us to the fantastic and dreamlike world of Basile's Pentamerone, masterfully interpreting the baroque masterpiece of the seventeenth century

“It was na vota, in the town of Arzano, na bona femmena, who every year scarrecava no son mascolo; so much so that they had reached seven, that he saw na scerenga de lo god Pan with seven reeds, a chiù granne of the autra ... "

This is the incipit of the fairy tale chosen by Peppe Barra to lead us into the oneiric world of Basile pentamerone, on an enchanted journey surrounded by fairy creatures and unlikely events.
The Neapolitan artist debuted yesterday 12 February at the Teatro Delle Palme in Naples with the piéce "Dream of an Enchanted Night", His free interpretation of the Cunto de li Cunti (better known as Pentamerone) by Giambattista Basile, using as a leitmotif of the narrative" I sette palombelli ".

The fairy tale is the favorite by Peppe Barra and was the pretext to let us know part of the fantastic universe recreated by Basile in the seventeenth century, full of characters at the limit of the absurd, magical, colorful and infusions of Neapolitan. That Neapolitan style that helped make his work a baroque masterpiece and one of the landmarks of local and international literature.

With the support of a translation work from the original dialect of the era to a more modern Neapolitan and understandable, Barra makes the story his own, reinterpreting it and revisiting it in an original way, but leaving unaltered some terms of that seventeenth-century vernacular able alone to transmit literary games otherwise impossible to recreate.

The starting point of the narration is the story of Gianna, the last born of eight children, who decides to go in search of her seven lost brothers. THE seven palombelli they had decided years ago to leave the house and abandon the mother, believing that the latter was about to give birth to another male and not the female they wanted. Gianna's adventure will be just an excuse for the artist to tell us two more of Pentamerone's fables, letting us know the naive and stupid Vardiello and the magic duck that brings good luck to those who own it.

The personal touch of Barra we find him during all the staging: the artist does nothing but entertain and fascinate his audience alternating with the classic storytelling of fables, folk songs, proverbs, poems, supported on stage by a band of four musicians, very good at underlining every passage of acting.

The set design and the actress Teresa of the Old made everything even more original and engaging. With the help of a virtual background that recreated, with videos and animations, the environment in which the story took place and thanks to the recitation of the nice and bright Del Vecchio, an interpreter of both Gianna and Vardiello, the work has really reached a high degree of personalization.

Dream of an Enchanted Night has thus been further enriched, leaving unaltered il communicative and dreamlike power of Basile's baroque masterpiece, but evolving thanks to the mastery of a great artist like Peppe Barra.

The show will be staged at the Delle Palme up to the 22 February. For all the info on timetables and ticket prices, consult the our dedicated article.