Cellini

Comedy/drama for 9 characters (7 men, 2 women).

Adapted from the Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, translated by J. Addington Symonds.

The play chronicles the life of the original “Renaissance Man,” Benvenuto Cellini, the sixteenth-century Italian sculptor and man-about-town. Cellini’s masterwork is the magnificent Perseus, the creation of which is the play’s centerpiece. As he works, he dictates his memoirs, letting us into his life: We learn of his days in Paris and Rome, and of his beloved Florence; we also get a glimpse of the artist’s bravado—he snubbed the patronage of Pope Paolo and was promptly thrown in jail; we’re given accounts of his love life; and we’re also teased about a couple of juicy murders. The play closes with the unveiling of the Perseus and leaves the audience touched by Cellini’s genius.