Fasolino and his companions enter the stage singing a song about a goose that was stolen in a henhouse and cooked by the innkeeper Brighella. Sandrone expresses his anger, as his most beautiful goose has been taken; he suspects Fasolino to be the thief. He gets close to the place where Fasolino and the other characters are eating, and he hears them sing. Sandrone recognises Fasolino’s voice and asks Brighella to confirm that he is in the inn. Brighella certifies it and Sandrone lashes out on Fasolino, but Brighella goes back to serve his clients and advises Sandrone to watch his language.Florindo arrives with Arlecchino, who reveals to Sandrone that, during the night, Gervasa’s son saw Fasolino with a goose on his shoulders heading to Brighella’s inn with other people. Sandrone wants to call several people to punish Fasolino and his accomplices, but Florindo urges him to be careful because it would make him guilty and could force him to face a trial. Instead, he advises him to go see the Mayor and file a complaint. However, Sandrone does not trust justice, and his anger increases when he hears Fasolino loudly rejoicing to be eating the goose. Florindo promises to help Sandrone, and Arlecchino accompanies Sandrone to see the Mayor. The second act begins with Balazone’s monologue about the deposition of Sandrone. Florindo arrives and says that he is on holiday and, talking about various things, offers to attend the trial for the theft of the goose. Sandrone is questioned, and Balanzone puts him in a difficult position. He assures him that he has two witnesses, but Fasolino announces that he has fifteen or twenty of them, which, according to Balanzone, should make him win the trial. Arlecchino steps in as Sandrone’s witness, but Balanzone accuses him of having made a false testimony. Florindo reveals that he is the first judge and president of the court, declares Dottor Balanzone’s work to be unsuitable, and accuses Fasolino and his accomplices of having stolen Sandrone’s goose. He announces that a trial will take place. The play ends with a moral addressed to the audience.

Glove-puppet

Not specified

Nino Pozzo (Matteo Pozzo)

Italy

Verona

Manuscript

Interrogation

Theft

Banquet

Justice

Morality

Testify

Comical

Italian

Mayor

Balanzone

Judge

Fagiolino

Sandrone

Peasant (man)

Arlecchino

Brighella

Innkeeper

Monologue

Song

Address to the public

Inn scene

Story

Aside

L'Oca

The Goose

In a former espadrille factory closed for years, abandoned objects, clothes and machines come to life to evoke the forty-five years of life of the factory and its workers. Former workers, former managers, and residents who lived by the rhythm of factory life recall with emotion the hours of hard work interspersed with joy, the strike pickets and union struggles, the resistance to successive factory closures and unemployment. Among them, Jacqueline makes her eight-year-old grandson Ulysse understand the place of the factory in her life. The factory, which was closed and left abandoned for a long time, was finally dismantled and demolished. The day the building is razed to the ground, the whole landscape of the city changes, leaving a gaping void for the inhabitants. The children of the school, worried and disoriented, wonder about this disappearance. The headmaster then asks them to draw the factory as they have always seen it or as they have been told about it, so that they will not forget it. Ulysse offers his drawing to his grandmother Jacqueline to console her: it shows the factory teeming with life, as she knew it. This is how this working-class memory is passed on from one generation to the next.