Lino Guanciale will return to Bologna’s Arena del Sole on November 6 and 7 with “Il Mago di Redonda. Alle origini dell’anima giocosa di Umberto Eco,” a production making its world premiere. Guanciale developed the play’s dramaturgy with Michele Cogo.
Produced by Emilia Romagna Teatro in collaboration with the Umberto Eco Foundation and Fondazione Bottega Finzioni ETS, the production looks beyond Eco’s public image to examine the roots of his intellectual identity. It draws on Cogo’s 2010 essay, “Fenomenologia di Umberto Eco. Indagine sulle origini di un mito intellettuale contemporaneo.”
The play focuses on an “Eco before Eco,” following the writer and semiologist through childhood, education and his earliest writing. It also incorporates previously unpublished materials, bringing the internationally known intellectual into conversation with the child and young man who shaped his imagination. Redonda, the island in the title, serves as a metaphor for Eco’s thought—a space between reality and invention, learning, play and imagination.
Guanciale describes the relationship between reality and representation, scholarly work and public image, and the man and the persona as central themes. The end in February 2026 of the ten-year silence on Eco’s works stipulated in his will provides an occasion to revisit his life and legacy. Rather than retelling his best-known works, the production aims to highlight the creativity, irony and curiosity that shaped his career and his playful “Homo Ludens” spirit.
Sources: ANSA Cultura.