TO a few months away from The dream, Roberto Benigni come back tonight December 10th at 9.45pm on Rai 1 and RaiPlay with a new show in the form of a monologue: Pietro, a man in the wind. Show for the first time live from the heart of Vatican City. Peter is written by Roberto Benigni with Michele Ballerin, Chiara Mercuri and Stefano Andreoli (The book also comes out tomorrow, December 11th – Einaudi – with the full text and other things which for reasons of time were not included in the monologue).
Roberto Benigni Pietro, a man in the wind tonight 10 December on Rai 1 and RaiPlay. Monologue show plot, what is it about
With Pietro, a man in the windRoberto Benigni says the life of the apostle of Jesus who is considered the first Pope by the Catholic Church. Before the crucifixion and also after the subsequent resurrection of Jesus, Peter was appointed head of the twelve apostles and therefore promoter of that movement which would later become the first Christian Church.
A tireless preacher, he was the first to baptize a pagan, the centurion Cornelius. According to tradition, he became the first bishop of Antioch in Syria for about 30 years, from 34 to 64 AD.C., then continued his preaching up to Rome where he died between 64 and 67 AD, during the anti-Christian persecutions ordered by the emperor Nero.
Of this figure, Benigni composes an unprecedented portrait, that of the man before the saint, also showing his fragilities. «A man of flesh and blood, the fisherman, the apostle to whom Jesus said: “To you I entrust my community, my followers, we would say today”. A person, in short, who «gets angry, acts on impulse, makes mistakes, misunderstands, cries, laughs, falls asleep, suffers, rejoices and is moved. We imagine him bald with wrinkles, and instead when he meets Jesus he is more or less his age, this is a story about kids.”
The suggestive location of the show “Pietro, a man in the wind” (Rai)
Benigni: «I fell in love with Pietro»
But what drove Benigni to talk about the first Pope? «You could never imagine what happened to me while I was preparing this work on Pietro. I fell in love with Pietro. Completely. And how fond I was of him! Because Pietro is just like us. I feel it so close! Reading his story I kept thinking: but that’s me, I would have done the same thing! Pietro profoundly resembles us.”
And again: «His humanity is the humanity of all of us: he gets angry, acts impulsively, makes mistakes, misunderstands, cries, laughs, falls asleep, suffers, rejoices and lets himself be moved… just like we do. And he was entrusted with the greatest task ever given to a human being: to open or close the doors of Paradise. Incredible!””.
With Pietro a man in the windthe Oscar-winning actor continues his long tradition of shows on Rai. In 2012 he had led The most beautiful in the worldfocused on the key principles of the Italian Constitution. Two years later it was the turn of The Ten Commandmentson the foundation of the Christian faith.
In March 2025 it went on air The dreamwith various themes at its center, linked to the ideals of the European Union. The great public success that his proposals receive every time attests that there is still spaceor to speak in a profound way to the general public about important topics, without losing the irony and enthusiasm that have always distinguished Benigni.