Pippo Delbono

Pippo Delbono (born 1 June 1959 in Varazze, Italy) is an Italian author, actor, and director.

Biography

Pippo Delbono began training in traditional theatre in Denmark, studying the principles of oriental theatre, through a rigorous work on body and voice. Later, in Germany, Delbono was invited by Pina Bausch to follow her work. At the beginning of the 80's he founded the Compagnia Pippo Delbono, creating most of his works with them, from Il Tempo degli Assassini (1987) to La Gioia (2018).

He does not stage plays but, rather, total creations, devised with a stable group of actors whose number has grown through the years. The encounter with socially marginalized people determines a turning point in his poetical research: that's how Barboni (1997) was born. Some of these actors – among them Bobò, deaf-mute, who had been kept in an asylum in Aversa, near Naples, for forty-five years and recently died – have kept working with the company and are still a central part of this experience.

The works that followed — La rabbia dedicated to Pasolini, Guerra, Esodo, Gente di plastica, Racconti di giugno, Urlo, Il silenzio, Questo buio feroce, La menzogna, Dopo la battaglia, Orchidee, Vangelo, La gioia — like the ones before, have been performed worldwide in more than fifty countries, in theaters and festivals, including the Festival d'Avignon (where a lot of the company's creations were presented), Barcelona's Grec, Theater Spektakel in Zurich, Festwochen in Wien, Festival TransAmeriques in Montreal, Venice Biennale, etc.

In 2009, he was awarded the Europe Prize Theatrical Realities, in Wrocław.

Several theatres, including the Théâtre du Rond-Point in Paris, Piccolo Teatro in Milan, Teatro Argentina in Rome, among others, present regularly his performances. Henry V — his only creation based on an existing play – is the only Italian production of Shakespeare that has ever been invited to perform at the Royal Shakespeare Company. His production Vangelo (2016) has been realized at Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb with actors of his company together with Croatian actors, dancers, musicians and chorus and with refugees of the PIAM refugee camp in Asti (Italy). The performance has two versions: Opera with chorus and orchestra, that premiered in Italy at Teatro Comunale in Bologna, and Drama version, that premiered at Thèatre Vidy – Lausanne. The music of the performance are by Enzo Avitabile who won the Ubu Prize for them. His last theatre creation, La gioia, premiered in March 2018 and has been presented at Theatre Olympics in Delhi and Bhopal (India), at Hong Kong Arts Festival, in Shizuoka (Japan), in Tunisia, Spain, Portugal. and it will be on tour in the theatrical season 2021/2022.

Europe Theatre Prize In 2009, he was one of the recipients of the XI Europe Prize Theatrical Realities. The prize organization described Delbono as a "poet of social marginalisation and diversity" and stated that he "has always seen art as a fundamental experience for overcoming desperation".

Theatre

Opera Studio per Obra Maestra at Teatro Lirico Sperimentale Spoleto (2007) Cavalleria Rusticana by Pietro Mascagni at Teatro di San Carlo Naples (2012) Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at Grand Theatre, Poznań (2014) Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini at Teatro di San Carlo Naples (2014 and 2016) St John Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach at Teatro Massimo Palermo Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma (2018)

Awards 1997 – Premio Ubu Special Prize for Barboni 1998 – Italian Critic's Award for Guerra 2003 – Le Maschere Awards for Gente di Plastica 2004 – David di Donatello Best Documentary for Guerra 2005 – Le Maschere Awards for Urlo 2009 – Europe Theatre Prize - Europe Prize Theatrical Realities 2010 – Festival international du court métrage de Clermont-Ferrand Grand Prix Compétition Internationale for Blue Sofa 2011 – Premio Ubu Best Show for Dopo la Battaglia 2012 – Premio Abbiati 2012 – Prix spécial du Jury SSR – Festival Vision du réél Nyon for Amore e Carne 2013 – Don Quijote Prize at Locarno Festival for Sangue 2013 – Special Mention Doclisboa for Sangue 2014 – San Giò Video Festival Best Movie for Sangue 2016 – Festival del Cinema del Reale Award Best Actors Pippo Delbono and Bobò 2016 – Grand Prix du Festival Doc en courts de Lyon for La Visite 2016 – It's All True – International Documentary Film Festival São Paulo

Best Short Film for La Visite

Filmography

Director Guerra (2003) Grido (2006) Blue Sofa (2009) short film La paura (2009) Amore carne (2011) Sangue (2013) La Visite (2015) Vangelo (2016)

Actor

Exhibits Ma mère et les autres, La Maison Rouge, Paris (2014) L’Esprit qui ment, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2018)

Concerts Amore e carne, with Alexander Balanescu (2011) Il sangue, with Petra Magoni and Ilaria Fantin, inspired by Sophocles's Oedipus at Colonus (2013) La notte, with Piero Corso, inspired by Bernard-Marie Koltès's La Nuit juste avant les forêts (2014) Bestemmia d'amore, with Enzo Avitabile (2014)