Teatro dei FiliVia delle Quinte, Arezzo · dal 1889 Take the controls

Compagnia di marionette · quinta generazione

Teatrodei Fili

A gesture begins overhead.
It arrives in the heart one breath later.

137 seasons touring
214 speaking figures

Take a wooden control Drag · or press 1—3 + arrow keys
VERLET RIG / LIVE Celeste · walking under tension

01 Celeste walks on her own · Arlecchino is yours · Ottavio bows below

Descend backstage

Atto I · La stirpe

Five hands,
one tremor.

Every generation changed the controls. None changed the promise: wood must appear to hesitate before it becomes alive.

  1. Giacomo Bellini

    The cabinetmaker who gave a scrapwood Pulcinella three strings and an impossible little shrug.

    I

  2. Livia Bellini

    Painted tears inside the eyelids, visible only when a player lowered his gaze into the worklight.

    II

  3. Ettore & Rosa

    Built the touring bridge case: eighty-seven figures, one bicycle, and a proscenium folded into twelve crates.

    III

  4. Agnese Bellini

    Shortened the knee strings by a thumb-width. The company’s walk acquired its famous tender stumble.

    IV

  5. Mara & Elio

    Keep 214 figures in speaking condition and teach old knots to new hands under the same amber lamp.

    V

11,804performances recorded

5hands on one control

1knot unchanged since 1889

Atto II · La gravità

The space
between pull
and reply.

Temple line · gaze Palm line · address Knee line · gait

11 active lines per principal figure

0.42 s average gesture lag

23 g counterweight in Celeste’s left wrist

Constraint study 7B · Mara Bellini’s touring control

Atto III · Il banco

Before the face
learns its name.

Poplar blanks rest seven winters. Each expression begins with the same three cuts: brow, nose, doubt.

Lamp cold · three faces waiting

01 · SbozzoVal di Chiana poplar
mallet + 18 mm gouge

Ring 7 · felled above Romena

07 · CarattereCheek planes opened
jaw weighted with lead

A.B. · 14 cuts beneath the jaw

14 · RespiroRabbit-skin gesso
carmine lake, lampblack

Livia's hidden tear · 1938

Bench no. 2 · burn marks from the winter of 1946 remain beneath the vise

Atto IV · Cartellone 2026

Four worlds.
Forty strings.

New cloth, old wood, live musicians. The 137th touring season travels with nine trunks and one stubborn moon.

TEATRO DEI FILI PRESENTAIL RE
DI CARTAPaper crowns. Wooden wars.12—19 SET · AREZZO
7 players · 63 min
UNA FAVOLA NOTTURNALUNA
STORTAFor six players and a crooked moon03—11 OTT · FIRENZE
4 musicians · 71 min
DOPO CARLO GOZZIL’OSSO
CHE CANTAA comedy of hunger in three knots21—29 NOV · TORINO
9 players · 78 min
RIPRESA DEL 1931IL MARE
IN TASCARestored from Livia’s promptbook08—16 DIC · BOLOGNA
6 players · 66 min

Printed by Stamperia Orfeo · Via San Lorentino 22 · no late seating after the first knot

La porta del laboratorio

Come close enough
to see the knots.

The public door is narrow. The room beyond it contains five generations of sawdust, 640 metres of linen line, and eighteen seats beneath the bridge.

Open workshopThursdays, 16:30
Via delle Quinte 7, Arezzo

Rehearsal gallery18 seats only
Italian & whispered English

Archive appointments214 figures
3,860 drawings · 37 promptbooks

Knock on the workshop door

FILO / 73