In the 1990s, Giovanni La Guardia (professor of literature at the university Napoli – L’Orientale) suggested that Bruno Leano create a show based on the character Don Juan, which he was giving lectures on. Leone recounts that he found the writing of Il convitato di pezza (the feast of rags) very difficult. There were several versions of the play – the one described here is the seventh. Music by Antonia Fraioli was played during the show by four members of the workers group E’ zezi.

Pulcinella sings songs from Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The intrigued Teresina would like to see this show, but Pulcinella deters her by saying that it is not appropriate for women. Then the two puppets disappear, and the Puppeteer comes out of his booth to announce the staging of a new show and the destruction of his old theatre. He goes back inside the booth. The guarattelle puppets sing the story of a traditional show: the Dog, a Guappo (a gangster) and Death assault Pulcinella, who drives them away so that he can finally marry his fiancée Teresina.

Don Giovanni comes on and invites Pulcinella to his marriage with Teresina. Pulcinella asks the Puppeteer for help, but he refuses to get rid of Don Giovanni; instead, he encourages Pulcinella to find another fiancée. Don Giovani sings and dances with several women whom he seduces – a butterfly, a fan, a feather duster and a mouse. Then the women come back crying because Don Giovanni has abandoned them. Then Don Giovanni seduces Teresina. All the characters played by guarattelle arrive to invite Pulcinella to Teresina and Don Giovanni’s marriage. Pulcinella is overcome with sadness and asks every one of them to kill him. The Dog takes his hat off, the Guappo strikes him with a cane, Death removes his black mask and, at the end, the Puppeteer finds the lifeless puppet. But he rejoices, because he will soon serve Don Giovanni and become rich. The Puppeteer waits on the booth’s stage for the feast for Don Giovanni and Teresina’s marriage to be served. But he will only have an olive and a drop a wine. He announces the end of the show, when Pulcinella comes back. Because Don Giovanni will not repent, Pulcinella kills him by removing his head and his clothes and hitting the puppeteer’s hand. As a result, he reunites with Teresina, who tells him that Don Giovanni is impotent. They both dance a last tarentella. At the end, a giant puppet of Pulcinella comes on.