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 ==