D'Ambrosi originally starred in and directed Days of Antonio (I Giorni di Antonio) in 1981 at LaMaMa. After subsequent productions in Italy in the 1980's, D'Ambrosi recently staged a completely new version of I Giorni di Antonio at the Teatro Patologico Festival in Rome with Celeste Moratti in the title role.

Moratti will repeat her performances for the LaMaMa staging, joined by David R. Duenias, Gerry Sheridan and Ira Lopez.

Based on a true story, Days of Antonio centers on "Antonio, a disabled boy, born with one leg shorter than the other in a poor peasant's family, is locked by his parents in a roost to live with the chickens and to be shown off from time to time like a circus attraction," according to press notes. "He grows up with the hens, identifying himself with the king of the henhouse, the rooster. At the age of fifteen, he starts satisfying his natural instincts with the hens, but one day his parents catch him with a prostitute and decide to lock him in an insane asylum. Days of Antonio starts the day the unlucky boy is admitted into the asylum, where he finds out the truth: he's not an animal and will never be a human being. The story swings between tragedy and comedy like life in a madhouse from the point of view of the insane."

D'Ambrosi's works as a playwright include Cose Da Pazzi (Mad Things Out of This World), La Trota (The Trout), The Dis-Adventures of Peter Pan vs. Capitan Maledetto and The Pathological Passion of the Christ.

Days of Antonio will play a limited engagement at LaMaMa E.T.C. through Dec. 30, located at 74A East 4th Street in Manhattan. Tickets are available by calling (212) 475-7710 or by visiting www.lamama.org.