At the beginning of the 80's he founded the Compagnia Pippo Delbono, creating most of his works with them, from Il Tempo degli Assassini (1987) to La Gioia (2018).
[3] He does not stage plays[4] but, rather, total creations, devised with a stable group of actors whose number has grown through the years.
The encounter with socially marginalized people determines a turning point in his poetical research: that's how Barboni (1997) was born.
[5] Some of these actors – among them Bobò,[6] deaf-mute, who had been kept in an asylum in Aversa, near Naples, for forty-five years and recently died – have kept working with the company and are still a central part of this experience.
The prize organization described Delbono as a "poet of social marginalisation and diversity" and stated that he "has always seen art as a fundamental experience for overcoming desperation".