The cap with bells

The Neapolitan actor Silvio Orlando, winner of prestigious awards such as 3 David di Donatello, 3 Nastri d’argento, 2 Globo d’oro, and 2 Ciak d’oro, takes on the role of the humble and tragic Ciampa in Andrea Baracco's version of “The Hat with Bells”, theatrical piece in two acts written by Pirandello in 1916, which revisits the themes of two other short stories by the writer: “The Truth” and “Certain Obligations”, both from 1912.

Pirandello himself described in letters addressed to Angelo Musco, the Sicilian actor for whom the work was created, the character of Ciampa as an “arch-vivid” man, full of tragic humanity, who begins his journey with an ironic comedy that mocks the obtuseness of others, only to plunge, in his humiliation as a defeated man, into a sort of lyrical exaltation that continuously transports the audience from laughter to anguish.

The opposition to the female protagonist, Beatrice, reveals the hypocrisy of society and the fragile balance between truth and appearance. Their stories become a universal reflection on the mask that everyone is forced to wear to survive and show how, in a world based on fiction, madness can be the only way to remain authentic, two emblematic themes of Pirandello's poetics, which still retain their power to captivate the audience today.