“Arlecchino, servant of two masters” is the most celebrated production of the Italian company Piccolo Teatro di Milano. The performance at the Maliy Theatre opens the Golden Mask theatre festival in Moscow.

The play had thousands of productions across the globe since 1947.

It's based on an eighteenth-century comedy by Carlo Goldoni's, whose style is rooted in the Italian Commedia dell'arte – a popular form of improvised mask theatre with stunts, dance numbers, funny scenes called ‘lazzi’ and Italian dialogues pronounced at incredible speed.

For more than forty five years the mask of Arlecchino has been covering the face of one actor, Ferruccio Soleri. He first played the part in the 1960s in the original production created by Giorgio Strehler. And since Strehler's death he's also been the director.

Training hard in his late seventies, Soleri puts maximum efforts into every performance, and demands the same from the rest of the actors.

“He is a historical Arlecchino. And he is quite severe, he pays attention to every detail,” said actress Giulia Valenti.

With duels, chases, weddings, love scene and food fights, this old-fashioned comedy creates lots of challenges for the actors. And the comedy's veteran says the main difficulty is the mask itself.

“The feelings of any person are expressed on his face first of all. When you're wearing a mask, the public can't see it. So you need to make people believe you just with the help of you voice, your gestures, your movements,” Soleri says.