||| Teatro Hugo E Ines #2 |||

||| Teatro Hugo E Ines #2 |||

Image from the production:
“The Adventures Of Ginocchio” by Teatro Hugo E Ines

By the way "ginocchio" is Italian for knee. Additionally some background information about the production

“…One theme explored repeatedly in Ginocchio is that of the power struggle within relationships. For example, Hugo's scene with the Street Musician. This vignette stretches the limits of what is reality, often blurring it with the unreal.

Hugo begins by placing a hat and a toy guitar before him. Then he rolls up his pant leg to reveal his knee. He puts a clown nose on his knee and a shirt around his calf. His own hands he threads through the sleeves of the shirt. To give the illusion that Ginocchio's head is lifting or lowering itself, he moves the clown nose up or down.

Ginocchio, the Knee-Man, comes alive, moving in a jittery fashion. Anxiously, he picks up the toy guitar, strums a cord, listens with his "ear", and then tunes the instrument. After playing some upbeat Latin music, he raises his hat to collect money from the spectators. Now Hugo himself reenters the scene, removing his hand from the Knee-Man's sleeve and stealing the hat and the money inside it. All the time that Ginocchio is searching frantically, Hugo just plays dumb. Then while Ginocchio is distracted, he quickly replaces the empty hat.

Ginocchio, wiping the sweat from his "head", plays on. And again Hugo steals the musician's hat and money. This time, though, Ginocchio holds a gun to his head and shoots himself. The puppeteer removes his hands, the clothes, and the rubber nose: Ginocchio, we see, has collapsed and disappeared. Hugo tries to leave with the money, but his knee goes limp…”
[Excerpt quoted from an article by Barbara Mathews – 1998]

Annotation for Barbara: Dear Barbara, I wanted to get hold of you to get your permission to quote you. Sorry, we lost track in all those many years. In case you find this page, please get in touch with me to say hello !!!