The commedia dell’arte is an age-old art form that emerged around the 16th century and has endured ever since, in one form or another. It was this art form that inspired Molière and so many others to write plays that rank among humanity’s greatest treasures. Thus, our production also serves to preserve this heritage. It enables the transmission of this theatrical tradition, which has spanned eras and nations, and keeps it alive at a time when commedia dell’arte is increasingly threatened with extinction. Furthermore, in today’s world, where speed, technology, artificial intelligence and individualism take precedence, we propose a return to the craft of theatre, to its origins, to a purely collective form of theatre, both amongst the artists and in our relationship with the audience.

Alongside this traditional aspect, our show also takes a modern approach. We have realised that, all too often, in our increasingly cosmopolitan and international cities, it is difficult to access culture in one’s mother tongue when it differs from the country’s official language. We have taken the examples of the cities where we live or have lived: Geneva, Buenos Aires, Milan, Rome, Paris. Despite the size of these cities, it is very difficult to find theatre in other languages, with a small exception for English, and even then, not everywhere. For example, there are hardly any shows in Spanish on offer in Geneva, even though the Spanish-speaking population is very, very large. We therefore also want to draw on one of the strengths of the commedia dell’arte – namely the fact that, in the past, each character came from a different region and spoke a different dialect (Pantalone speaks Venetian, Zanni speaks Bergamasque, Pulcinella speaks Neapolitan) – and bring it up to date, so that different communities can not only enjoy cultural representation but also come together, mix, and realise that it is possible to understand people who speak other languages, without needing to know how to speak them!