Le Commedie - Lo Astrologo

In Renaissance Naples, where superstition and skepticism collide, Giambattista della Porta serves up a dazzling farce about the lies we tell ourselves. "Lo Astrologo" follows Albumazar, a cunning astrologer whose mystical credentials mask a simple truth: he's a thief and a charlatan. When the wealthy, lovesick Pandolfo arrives desperate to win the beautiful Artemisia from her absent lover Guglielmo (lost at sea), he turns to Albumazar for magical assistance. What unfolds is a deliciously chaotic scheme where the astrologer's tricks spiral into ever more absurd complications. His cohorts Ronca, Arpione, and Gramigna add to the mayhem, each plotting their own heist while debating the fine line between robbery and honor. della Porta, a polymath who wrote seriously on natural philosophy, here revels in exposing the absurdity of those who put faith in stars and spells. The play pulses with the energy of commedia dell'arte, where servants scheme, masters fool themselves, and every character is playing a game they don't fully understand. It endures because it captures something timeless: the pleasure of watching charlatans exposed, and the deeper comedy of human self-deception.