Tale of a Potato - In Scena! Italian Theater Festival NY - May 6th 2026 - Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò’ at NYU, NYC

At the In Scena! Italian Theater Festival NY, tucked inside Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò at New York University, Tale of a Potato proved that great theatre can come from the simplest ingredients. The production originally premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it received an Edinburgh Fringe Theatre Award (EFFTA), before making its way to New York as part of the festival. One table, a sack of potatoes, a few handcrafted lights, and a performer with complete command of her technique somehow became one of the most inventive and charming pieces we’ve seen this season.

The setup immediately pulled us in. Before the show even officially began, performer Valentina Fadda was already onstage quietly preparing her world, surrounded by potatoes, tools, and tiny lighting instruments. There was something oddly suspenseful about it all. At one point, holding a hammer near the vegetables, it genuinely felt possible the potatoes might meet a tragic end. Instead, what unfolded was a funny, surprisingly emotional puppet story about identity, ambition, and losing yourself in other people’s expectations.

The potatoes themselves were delightful little characters, each with tiny eyes and distinct personalities. The protagonist, a potato coincidentally named Daniel after an audience suggestion, moved through different stages of life while surrounded by an entire vegetable society. His parents were played by a pair of sweet potatoes, while his co-workers appeared as zucchinis and carrots, each with their own wonderfully distinct personalities. The antagonist, played by an eggplant, became particularly memorable during one hilarious moment when the narrator explained that he was always smiling before casually carving an enormous grin directly onto his face. A cauliflower boss should not be as funny as it was, yet the audience fully accepted this strange vegetable universe within minutes.

The production constantly found inventive little visual jokes. One especially charming sequence involved a corn cob becoming so excited that it suddenly burst into popcorn right on the table. It was silly, unexpected, and completely delightful in exactly the way the entire show operated.

What made the show work so brilliantly was Fadda’s precision. Her vocal work was exceptional, creating sharply distinct characters with remarkable consistency. Every time a character returned, the exact same rhythm, resonance, and placement came back with them. The consistency and specificity of the voices revealed a performer completely in control of her craft. Her Italian accent added another layer of warmth and personality to the storytelling. Rather than smoothing it away, she embraced it completely, and the result felt deeply authentic.

The technical simplicity of the production was equally impressive. The lighting was entirely self-operated, built directly into the table itself with tiny movable practical lights that illuminated each potato like miniature movie stars. Every placement felt meticulous. Fadda became actor, puppeteer, narrator, lighting designer, and technician simultaneously. It gave the whole production an artisanal quality that felt intimate and incredibly smart.

There was also something wonderfully portable about the entire piece. You could imagine this exact production playing in a theatre, a bar, a classroom, or on a street corner anywhere in the world. It felt designed for travel and human connection rather than scale or spectacle. That independence became part of its charm.

The audience interaction helped too. The performer constantly broke the invisible barrier between stage and audience, asking questions, involving spectators in decisions, and making everyone complicit in the potato drama unfolding in front of them. The comedy landed naturally, but underneath the humour sat surprisingly thoughtful ideas about identity and self-worth. The story quietly asks whether we are truly living our own lives or simply becoming supporting characters in someone else’s story. By the end, beneath all the vegetable jokes and playful absurdity, there was something genuinely reflective sitting underneath it all.

The sound design added another clever layer. Recorded voiceovers occasionally echoed or slightly altered what the performer had just said live, creating a subtle doubling effect that made the storytelling feel dreamlike and theatrical without becoming confusing. Combined with the constant musical underscoring, the whole show maintained a gentle momentum that made its 30 minute runtime feel exactly right.

Most impressive of all was how magical the production felt while using such ordinary materials. It transformed potatoes into fully realized characters and built an entire emotional world out of vegetables, tiny lights, and pure performance skill. Tale of a Potato is funny, inventive, technically smart, and unexpectedly moving. A beautifully crafted little piece of theatre that proves imagination will always matter more than budget.

We are giving this 4/5 Ds (D D D D)

Tale of a Potato continues its run as part of the In Scena! Festival moving to the Culture Lab LIC on May 9th & 10th, more information and free tickets available here: www.inscenany.org

Cast & Creative

Written & Directed by Angelo Trofa

Performed by Valentina Fadda

Assistant Director: Leonardo Tomasi

Voice-over by Chiara De Giorgi

Original Music by Luca Spanu

Costumes & Set Design by Filippo Grandulli

Graphics by Daniele Coppi

Audio Recordings by Quarantacinque Audiolibri

Dubbing by Michela Atzeni

Translation & Revision by Chiara De Giorgio and Daniela Innocenti

Special Assistant: Jacopo Trofa

Presented by Batisfera Teatro