‘It’s natural to think that Pinocchio has always existed; it is impossible to imagine the world without him.’ Italo Calvino put it well: we all know that stubborn, deceitful, but endearing puppet. In Joel Pommerat’s hands, Pinocchio becomes a rebellious boy who throws himself into the world in search of happiness, impatient and driven by his own untamable impulses. In his stage adaptation of Carlo Collodi’s original story, Pommerat avoids any moralising tone or simplistic approach. On the contrary, he underlines the modernity and richness of the original text. Following their successful cooperation on Au monde, the composer Philippe Boesmans will once again give Pommerat’s characters a voice. He will pull out all the stops to present the many layers of the Pinocchio story with all its musical aspects. Perhaps we, too, young and old, look forward to this new work just as impatiently as Pinocchio.
