About the work
L'Aviatore Errante e il Piccolo Principe (The Wandering Aviator and the Little Prince) is a contemporary theatre production freely inspired by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's world-famous tale "The Little Prince". At its centre stands the figure of the wandering aviator – the narrator who crash-lands in the desert and meets the mysterious child from a distant planet. The piece is conceived as a poetic companion to an earlier "Don Quixote" staging by the same theatre company, forming a diptych with it: both works share a belief in the power of poetic language as a guide and an opening onto an "elsewhere".
Plot
The piece follows the emblematic stations of Saint-Exupéry's source and reinterprets them poetically. An aviator is stranded alone in the desert and there meets the little prince, who tells of his tiny planet and his beloved rose. On his journey through distant worlds, the prince has previously encountered strange grown-ups – the king, the vain man, the businessman – whose logic remains incomprehensible to him. Only the fox teaches him the secret of seeing with the heart: that what is essential is invisible to the eye. Set within a narrative frame and carried by recurring characters that link it to its "Don Quixote" counterpart, the familiar story becomes a meditation on childhood, wonder and human coexistence.
Cultural significance
The production places a question at its heart: can beauty, art, poetry and dreams, when brought into the square and shared, inspire all of us toward even the smallest change? It understands the work of art as a small piece of revolution, striving toward peace and the wonder of human coexistence – seen through the lens of childhood. As a contemporary stage version of one of the most widely read books in the world, the piece joins a long tradition of adaptations of "The Little Prince" and seeks to make its humanist message tangible for a present-day audience.