Printed
24 pages
Aladino di tutti i colori
Aladino di tutto i colori (Aladdin of all colours) is an adaptation of the story Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp. Mimmo Cuticchio created this show to bring together the opera dei pupi and the Middle East, and to introduce this theatre to an audience that was not familiar with it. As in other shows by Cuticchio, the pupi share the stage with human performers - one storyteller and one actor. Iranian actor Yousif Latif Jaralla is in charge of the narration. But Cuticchio also appears on the small pupi stage, as the genie of the lamp.
A child and a magician fight for power
A human narrator, Giafar the magician, addresses the audience. One of his spirits tells him that he found the pure-hearted child Giafar was looking for. Giafar needed the child to capture the powerful genie of a magic lamp. At a marketplace, the narrator recounts the story of Scheherazade to some children. Among them was Aladdin – the pure-hearted child. Giafar pretends to be his uncle, and then leads Aladdin down into an underground cave to retrieve the magic lamp. But Aladdin does not give it to him, and so Giafar abandons him in the cave. With the help of a magic ring, Aladdin goes back to his mother’s house, bringing with him many precious stones as well as the lamp. He frees the genie, who helps him and his mother earn enough money to support themselves for years. Later, as a grown-up, the Sultan agrees to let Aladdin marry his daughter, thanks to the precious stones he found in the cave. But Giafar the magician finds out that Aladdin is still alive and that he grew rich with the help of the genie. He does everything in his power to retrieve the lamp and the genie. But in the end, Aladdin defeats Giafar. The genie seals him in the lamp and Giafar is doomed to come out only to tell the story of Aladdin to children.
First performance
RAI Sede Regionale, stage direction by Mimmo Cuticchio
Publications and translations
Roberto Giambrone (éd.), L'opera dei pupi dalla piccola alla grande scena. Cinque spettacoli di Mimmo Cuticchio. Palermo: Edizioni "Associazione Figli d'Arte Cuticchio", 2008.