In Sicily, these wooden knights played in a soap opera

Before the series with episodes on screen, the knights of the Opera dei Pupi could bring back their spectators several nights in a row. This puppet theatre, developed in Sicily at the beginning of the 19th century, drew on chivalrous tales, Renaissance poems or the stories of famous figures and robbers.

The dialogues were largely improvised by puppeteers. Behind the armor and the fights, it was therefore necessary to know how to tell as much as to manipulate. Family theatres combined sculpture, painting, construction and play. Two great traditions, those of Palermo and Catania, were distinguished by their puppetry, manipulation techniques and decorations, rather than by a uniform Sicilian model.

The economic upheavals of the 20th century have weakened these companies. In Palermo, the association linked to the International Puppet Museum works with companies to transmit and renew their practices. Retaining the characters is not enough: it also takes voices, hands and spectators to keep their adventures alive in front of an audience.