La foresta-radice-labirinto is a short dialogue text that Italo Calvino originally wrote for radio, but which was eventually staged as a puppet play at the suggestion of his friend Antonio Pasqualino. Calvino's original text has been adapted for the stage by director Roberto Andò, who had the idea of combining Calvino's writing with some poems by Andrea Zanzotto (from the collection Galateo in bosco) and Torquato Tasso (from the episode La foresta incantata of the poem Gerusalemme liberata).Roberto Andò, recalling this experience, writes: “The idea of asking Italian writers for texts for puppets was born from conversations between Antonio Pasqualino and myself. Italo Calvino sent a light-hearted text, where the geometric echoes of chaos are swallowed up by a sharp and ironic gaze. We needed someone to draw this metamorphic space where plant and human contaminate each other. So we thought of Renato [Guttuso]”. (Guttuso and the Musical Theatre, Charta, 1997).

King Clodoveo returns from war, but he is lost in a maze of branches and roots that have grown around his city. His daughter Verbena also gets lost in this forest. Meanwhile, her step-mother Ferdibunda organises a conspiracy against her husband Clodoveo along with the minister Curvaldo. While searching for the king and Verbena to kill them, the two traitors also get lost in the forest. Above the trees hovers a mysterious bird that all the characters meet. With the help of Mirtillo, a forest dweller, Verbena manages to save the king and reveal Ferdibunda's deception. The balance between the natural and urban worlds is thus renewed when Mirtillo and Verbena can celebrate their love by getting married. The bird will be reborn like a phoenix and everyone can return to the city in harmony.