The Italian Associazione Figli d'Arte Cuticchio puppet theatre troupe led by Mimmo Cuticchio performed their children’s play Frenzy of Orlando last night, 11 August, on the Revelin fort terrace as part of the anniversary 70^th Festival’s accompanying programme “City Keys” and on the occasion of the Year of Orlando.

The large audience made up of all generations gathered on the Revelin fort terrace had the amazing opportunity to see the authentic puppet theatre, an essential feature and spirit of Italian streets, as it used to be. Mimmo Cuticchio, who is head of the Associazione Figli d'Arte Cuticchio, said that he was glad to be in Dubrovnik again after a long time. The Associazione performed at the Festival in 1982 on the Bunić square as part of the Youth Theatre Days with the “Orlando and Rinaldo Battle for the Lovely Angelica” and again in 2004 with four plays, sponsored by the Italian Cultural Institute from Zagreb. After the performance last evening, children were gifted postcards by the Cuticchios and were even given the chance to try their hand at controlling the puppets.

Orlando Furioso or Astolfo’s Journey to the Moon is the central episode of Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso, and in the repertoire of the Opera dei Pupi - a puppet theatre showcasing medieval literary works. One of the fan favourites among the puppet theatre lovers is certainly the Frenzy of Orlando, a knightly epic which tells of the fantastic adventures of the French paladins, of the seemingly endless conflict between Moors and Christians, of monsters and wizards and creatures of every kind, of spells and passionate love that blind and distract brave knights.

The Associazione Figli d’arte Cuticchio was founded in 1977 in Palermo by Mimmo Cuticchio. The Associazione unifies the three basics of theatrical communication language: the return of traditional puppetry techniques with il cunto (a technique of storytelling associated with knightly epics that follows certain metrics, body movements, and facial expressions which are needed to describe the characters) and experimentation. Cuticchio’s success led them to collaborations with numerous European theatre scholars and to festivals and events across the globe. Besides their personal productions, they put up exhibitions and host seminars and workshops around Italian universities. Furthermore, since 1997 they also organize schools for puppeteers and cuntoists at prestigious European cultural institutions.

The City of Dubrovnik pronounced 2019 the Year of Orlando on the 600^th anniversary of the statue being erected on Stradun. This unique event was organised on that occasion, thanks to the donation made by the Lokrum Reserve.

The “City Keys” audience development programme accompanying the anniversary 70^th Dubrovnik Summer Festival includes numerous events and content for children and youth. After “Video Games” with Ivan Marušić Klif and “How Plays are Made” with Zdravka Ivandija Kirigin, next on the programme are the youth workshop “It Hurts: Anatomy of Shame” and storytelling event with Jasna Held “Stories from Dubrovnik.”