Milan · Brera
Piccolo Teatro
Europe's first publicly funded repertory theatre, founded in a bombed city in 1947
Strehler's Arlecchino, in the repertoire almost continuously since 1947
Paolo Grassi and Giorgio Strehler founded the Piccolo in 1947 in a city still full of rubble, on the argument that theatre was a public service like water. It was the first stabile in Europe, it created the model that most national theatres now follow, and it runs three buildings.
Its Arlecchino, servant of two masters, staged by Strehler in 1947 in commedia dell'arte style with masks and a candle-lit stage, has been performed thousands of times and is still revived. Performances are in Italian.
The detail
Good to know
- Founded
- 1947
- First in Europe
- Publicly funded repertory theatre
- Houses
- Strehler, Grassi and Studio Melato
- Language
- Italian
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