Aggiungi un posto a tavola

Aggiungi un posto a tavola (ET: Set another place at the table) is a musical comedy written by Pietro Garinei, Sandro Giovannini and Iaia Fiastri, with music by Armando Trovaioli. It debuted in 1974 under the direction of Garinei and Giovannini.

An English version called Beyond the Rainbow, adapted by David Forrest with lyrics by Leslie Bricusse, opened in November 1978 at the Adelphi Theatre in London's West End and ran for six months.

Characters

• Don Silvestro, priest
• Clementina
• San Crispino/Crispín, the Mayor
• Totó, the dummy
• Consolazione/Consuelo/Consolation, prostitute
• God

Plot

The play is divided in two acts.

In the first act Don Silvestro receives a phone call from God announcing a second universal flood. He orders Don Silvestro to build an ark like Noah's and save the people of the village. When Don Silvestro announces this to the villagers and tells them God's will, the villager Mayor, Crispíno, doesn't believe a word. The Mayor has a daughter named Clementina, who is secretly in love with the priest. After some little time God enables Don Silvestro to perform a miracle in order to convince everyone in town about the second universal flood and God's will. Good-time girl Consolazione arrives at the village—and with this things get complicated. Consolazione distracts every male in the village, thereby avoiding God's planned procreation one night before the flood, so God boosts the manhood of the village idiot, Toto, in order to distract Consolazione.

When Toto announces he has fallen in love with Consolazione and wants to marry her and take her with him on the ark when it sails, the village women get angry and stop their men from working on the vessel. Don Silvestro intervenes and convinces the villagers to complete the ark. When it is finished and ready to sail several things happen that make the situation complicated. First the Vatican intervenes by sending a Cardinal to the village to try to lure the villagers away from Silvestro's control and the ark by treating them to a lavish meal. The first act finishes when people discover that the Mayor has gone missing.

In the second act the Mayor, who has hidden himself in a statue, emerges to make a call to the authorities in order to stop Don Silvestro in his “insane idea”. The Mayor remains hidden until the wedding between Consolazione and Toto, but is discovered, captured and imprisoned. Clementina confesses to be in love with the priest who admits his own feelings for her.

The ark is ready and Silvestro and Clementina are the only persons on board. The villagers are crowded below, unable to board because the boarding stairs had been taken away. Heavy rain starts falling and the flood quickly starts. God orders Silvestro to sail off with Clementina, but Silvestro refuses to leave all his people. In the darkness, God's orders get louder and louder over the thunder and lightning. But Silvestro still refuses to sail off. Instead, he decides to climb down a rope from the ark and join his villagers in death in the waters below. Because of Silvestro's willingness to sacrifice himself for his villagers, God relents and stops the flood and the impending end of all mankind. The sun comes out again. The final scene is of everyone celebrating with a big dinner that the flood is over. A brilliant rainbow hangs over them. God glides down a shaft of light from Heaven and celebrates with them.

Seeds of the Word

The play is inspired by the biblical account of Noah's Ark (Genesis 6;7;8;9), and brings to light an act of mercy from God (Exodus 34:6;Deut 4:31;Nehemiah 9:31;Psalms 86:5;Psalms 103:8;Psalm 145:8;Ecclesiasticus 2:11;Ecclesiasticus 18:5;Ecclesiasticus 51:8;Jeremiah 3:12;Joel 2:13 and countless others...) obtained through a sacrificial spirit on the part of a man (Romans 12:1).