Reinventing Shakespeare in the puppet booth: dramaturgical experiments with glove puppets in Northern Italy

Puppet theatre has a long tradition of rewriting, with Shakespearean drama among its most frequently staged sources. In nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Italy, puppeteers often introduced popular or comic characters alongside Shakespearean protagonists, preserving the core narrative while sometimes disrupting its dramatic framework. This practice is still true today and is further explored in contemporary rewritings that challenge theatrical traditions. This article examines two Italian glove puppet adaptations – Amleto, ovvero Arlecchino principe di Danimarca , an anonymous play from 1898, and Gigio Brunello and Gyula Molnár's 2001 Macbeth all’improvviso – and seeks to highlight their dramaturgical innovations and the unique capacity of puppetry to reinterpret canonical texts.