Teatro Arbostella – Il Pidocchio

Teatro Arbostella – Il Pidocchio

Teatro Arbostella, here is the exhilarating “Il Pidocchio” by Ciro Ceruti: on stage the company ’O Spassatiempo

After a record season opening, with over 600 subscriptions, the Teatro Arbostella “Gino Esposito” is ready to welcome the second appointment of the 19th theatrical season 2026/2027.

On the stage of Viale Verdi arrives the theatrical company ’O Spassatiempo, coming from Tufino, in the province of Naples, with the comedy “Il Pidocchio”, text signed by Ciro Ceruti and directed by Franco Tortora, who will also be protagonist of the show.

The company returns for the second consecutive year in the Arbostella poster, after the positive feedback obtained in the past season. A confirmation that fits into the artistic path carried out by Arturo Esposito and Imma Caracciuolo, artistic and organizational directors of the theatre, with a programming that focuses on comedy, alternating texts of tradition and contemporary proposals, without sacrificing content and ideas of reflection.

In the middle of the pitch there is one of the oldest and most recognizable human vices: greed. The liceo, a small parasite entered the collective imagination as a symbol of tirchieria, thus becomes a theatrical metaphor of morbid attachment to money, but also of naivety and pettyness. A theme that crosses the history of the theatre, from the Latin comedy of Plauto, with the forefather protagonist of the “Aularia”, up to the Aragon of Molière and his famous masterpiece “L’avaro”, in which the craving of wealth affects human relationships and alters every family balance. A gallery of characters coming to the “Cavaliere avaro” of Puškin, where possession of money becomes an authentic obsession.

With “Il Pidocchio”, Ciro Ceruti resumes this thread and rereads it through Neapolitan sensibility and culture. The perspective proposed by Franco Tortora goes beyond the simple stereotype of the taccagno: in the popular Neapolitan mentality, in fact, greed does not necessarily coincide with the will to do evil. Even the character most attached to money can reveal, in decisive moments, a surprising generosity, especially when health and family affections come into play. It is precisely this contradiction to make the comedy particularly interesting: behind the seemingly mean behavior of the protagonist hides a universe of relationships, feelings and weaknesses that comedy brings to light, alternating paradoxical situations and moments of reflection.

The choice of the text arises from an artistic meeting that Tortora remembers with particular pleasure. The actor and director tells that he has witnessed the performance of the comedy, over fifteen years ago, by a group of friends, remaining immediately impressed. Since then he has matured the desire to re-propose it, convinced that the vices and human virtues, fallen into Neapolitan culture and artistic tradition, can assume original meanings and far from the usual clichés.

Franco Tortora’s curriculum is not just theatre. The actor took part in important film and television productions, including the Pizzofalcone bastards, the third season of Gomorra, Pericle the Black, with Riccardo Scamarcio, and the most recent Parthenope by Paolo Sorrentino, in which he plays the role of a priest in one of the most delicate scenes of the film. Different experiences, however, have not attenuated its connection with the stage. For Tortora, the theatre preserves a particular human dimension: the direct relationship with the public, the possibility to perceive its reactions in real time and that component of authenticity that makes every representation an unrepeatable experience. Next to Tortora will climb on the stage a numerous cast composed by Antonietta Rimoli, Nunzia Masucci, Mimì Manganiello, Checco Milo, Gennaro Basile, Nello Corrado, Mariapina Giacchino, Anna Menna, Giulia Ruggiero, Giacomo Sugliano, Sergio Spampanato and Carmela De Rosa.

Date, schedule, tickets

Dates and times: shows are scheduled on weekends 24, 25, 31 October, 1, 7 and 8 November 2026, with performances on Saturday at 20.45 and Sunday at 19.15.

Tickets are available at the cost of15 euro, with reduced to13 euro.

For information and reservations: 347 1869810 – 089 3867440

mail:theaterarbostella@gmail.com