THE RETURN OF PINOCCHIO IBD

Sinopse

á á&ldquo,Nelson&rsquo,s brief play takes place in a tiny Italian village after the Allied victory in World War II. This village is the birthplace of Pinocchio, the puppet who became a real boy&mdash,a fact advertised on a huge billboard decorated with the toy boy&rsquo,s famous smiling face. But the billboard is dilapidated and defaced now, and the pretty town we remember from the opening frames of Walt Disney&rsquo,s movie has become a cesspool of corruption and poverty. Geppetto has been knocked off by black marketeers, Jiminy Cricket is squashed by a bored townsperson before our eyes, theft, abortion, and murder are common occurrences. Pinocchio, now an all-too-human grown-up U S O entertainer (like so many one-time movie stars), arrives at his birthplace with pockets full of U S dollars and cigarettes and dreams about America, where anyone can become a millionaire. Once easy prey for wicked foxes and donkey-boys, Pinocchio is still a gullible naïf, and he is soon easily victimized by various villagers. But underneath his easygoing exterior, he&rsquo,s also a dark and frightening figure capable, it is implied, of cruel violence. The script&rsquo,s peak is a long monologue in which Pinocchio tells a village girl about the American dream: becoming a millionaire. All you need is to be ruthless, dishonest, and hardworking. Pinocchio&rsquo,s lecture includes tips on working the night shift (so you can sleep when no one&rsquo,s looking), loan-sharking, cutthroat business practices, secret takeovers, and insurance fraud. This information is delivered with good-natured casualness as Pinocchio sweeps a barroom floor to pay off his debt&mdash,except, we notice, he doesn&rsquo,t really do any work, but spends all his time spinning his vision of success American-style&hellip,a study in ironic contrast between the surface brightness of Pinocchio&rsquo,s image and the underlying darkness of his reality.&rdquo, Albert Williams, Chicago Reader