[Rugantino e l'affitto] - Gaetano Santangelo (alias Ghetanaccio)

[Rugantino e l'affitto]

Gaetano Santangelo (alias Ghetanaccio)
| Beginning of the 19th century | Rome, Italy
Characters
Rugantino, Rosetta, Sor Agapito, Bambini
Acts count
1
Note

In Il Volgo di Roma (1890), a collection of anecdotes of folk life in Rome, Francesco Sabatini (1852-1928) dedicated a chapter to Ghetanaccio, written by Filippo Chiappini (1836-1905), a poet who composed in the local dialect. Based on oral testimonies he collected, Chiappini relates short comic dialogues improvised by the glove-puppeteer, who was a famous performer in the streets and squares of the city.

Abstract

A debtor tries to extend the delay to pay his rent

Rugantino lives in a shabby attic room. He has no money left, his wife Rosetta is sick and their children are hungry. The landowner comes to their place and asks them to pay the rent. Rugantino tries to move him to pity by showing the state to which his family and him have been reduced. The landowner shows them the order to seize their property, then, moved by Rugantino’s children who cling to his clothes, he lets himself be touched: he extends Rugantino’s delay to pay by a quarter of an hour.

First performance

Rome, Italy, Beginning of the 19th century

Publications and translations

Publication

Filippo Chiappini, Gaetanaccio, memorie per servire alla storia dei burattini, in Francesco Sabatini (dir.), Il volgo di Roma. Roma: Ermanno Loescher & Co, 1890, p. 22-23.

Language
Romanesco
Literary tones
Satirical
Animation Techniques
Glove-puppet
Audience
Not specified
License
Public domain

Keywords

Theatrical techniques

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