When Achille Campanile wrote the one act play “Centocinquanta la gallina canta” (150 the chook is singing) way back in 1924, it is unlikely he would have imagined it performed by an amateur theatre group in Brisbane in 2018. Even less likely that he could have foreseen that audiences of the performances would have taken the opportunity to contribute to a loose change collection to support PiCCA’s chicken health projects in the Vietnam and the Congo. But both these things happened on the nights of 26 and 27 May at the ANFE Italian club in Newstead, Brisbane when the DANTEATRO group (part of the Dante Alighieri Society) put on the play.
Campanile’s play deals rather irreverently with themes of self-interested pettiness in everyday human affairs. An argument starts between husband and wife over the precise number a chook is actually singing in a very well-known Italian nursery rhyme. Very quickly things spin wildly out of control with lawyers, famed singers and others all getting in on the act. Resolution of course is finally achieved but not before many misunderstandings and pride driven disputes. Audiences at both nights quickly got into the spirit of things with surtitles ensuring non-Italian speakers too were keeping up with all the humorous twists and turns in the plot.
The connection between the performance and the projects in Vietnam and the Congo was not just the chickens though. Some of the Dante members are also members of PiCCA and when they are not busy bringing to life classic Italian theatrical pieces or teaching Italian, they work with the rest of the PiCCA team to help deliver projects aimed at enhancing health, education, and food security in vulnerable or marginalised communities in various parts of the world.
A big thank you to the ANFE Italian Club, The Dante Alighieri Society, The Danteatro group and the audiences on both nights for helping PiCCA do its work. Grazie mille!!
