La bottega del caffè (The coffee shop)

La bottega del caffè (The coffee shop) is staged at the Ambra Jovinelli Theater directed by Paolo Valerio and has as main performers Michele Placido - in the role of Don Marzio -, Luca Altavilla, Emanuele Fortunati, Ester Galazzi, Anna Gargano, Michelangelo Placido and Maria Grazia Plos. The comedy, composed in 1750 by Carlo Goldoni, is one of the most important by the great playwright and was written in Tuscan, which at the time had become the Italian lingua franca, so as to be understood by spectators from all regions and not, like others, in Venetian dialect.

The action of the comedy, which begins at the first light of dawn on a mild winter morning in Venice, during the Carnival, and ends when night falls, takes place around the coffee shop, a meeting place for regular and passing patrons, located in the centre of the square, from which there is a view of all the buildings that surround it. Around the shop, many different dynamics are created among the characters, who bicker, help each other and are interested in other people's issues. In any case, everyone's story leads to Don Marzio, who turns out to be the key character of the comedy, despite his ambiguity: sitting at the café, he observes and intrigues in the lives of the inhabitants, investing himself in a sort of superiority. His exit from the scene reveals the dark sides of each member of the small society of the shop patrons, ensuring the "happy ending" a bitter taste to the comedy, undoubtedly one of the most fascinating among those of Goldoni. 

Photo credits: courtesy of Simone Di Luca-Ambra Jovinelli Theater official site