Gualberto Niemen

Gualberto Niemen (Tronzano Vercellese 6 August 1905 - Biandronno 19 August 2003) was born to a couple of acrobats who worked in circuses and variety theatres. The whole family, even the in-laws, worked in the field of travelling artists. From an early age, in addition to being a contortionist, Gualberto was a fan of puppetry.

He frequented the Gianduja theatre where he saw the shows of the Lupi brothers; when his father was called to arms during the Great War he went to live with his stepmother Anita Tonini in a field near Turin. On that same field he saw the puppeteer Giacomo Canardi who operated Gianduja, and later also the puppeteer Domenico Francia.

After the war, Gualberto bought from a certain Bogni, an old tinsmith who had also been a puppeteer, a box of rod puppets, and then built a small theatre. His first show, with a capital S, was Il nuovo Caino given in August 1921. He met puppeteers and marionetteers such as the Marengo, the Burzio, the Gambarutti, Ferdinando Garda and the Concordia. With the Garda family they performed for a period on the same evenings, in different squares, challenging each other to see who could attract the larger audience.

In Niemen’s repertoire the classics of puppet theatre were flanked by original productions such as La storia della vaca rusa with Gianduja guarding the cemetery of Constantinople, and Il re della foresta alla caccia dell’uomo. One of his highlights was La iena di S. Giorgio (a classic in the repertoire of puppeteers) which was based on urban legends whose subjects were butchers, innkeepers, or cooks who filled their dishes with the meat of the men they had murdered.
For a long time Niemen performed this as a subject and then wrote a script.
His original creations were the characters of Testafina, Battista Diareja, and Capitan Bobò.

In a letter sent to Giordano Ferrari, on March 20, 1980, Gualberto describes the character of these masked types: Testafina is dressed as in the photo: he has a checked jacket with tails, a white shirt with a bow tie and dark blue trousers. Always optimistic; however at every fright, for hygiene reasons he has to change his underwear. He is eternally Gianduja’s friend, companion and sidekick. Battista Diareja is also good-natured, but can never give proper help to others in need ... because he too is always busy with ... bodily needs ...”

‘‘Captain Bobò is a good-natured grouch, but he is not always lucky in combat. Sometimes he is even demoted. Once, 47 years ago in a town in Alessandria, they knocked the puppet booth down during the night, precisely because there was a person from the town who looked exactly like Battista Diareja. I had to take the puppet to the town hall and give evidence that I had made it 6 years earlier.”