Pergola Theatre: all the shows not to be missed

The 2024/2025 season kicks off

The works in the programme are chosen for their creative value and ability to dialogue with current themes and issues, helping to form a mosaic of styles, visions and poetics that reflect the many souls and different sensibilities of the audience.

It opens from 8 to 13, at the Saloncino with the Inimitable, a journey in three chapters in which Sylos Labini, leads viewers to discover the lives of three courageous and countercultural men: Giuseppe Mazzini, the hero of the Risorgimento; Gabriele d'Annunzio, the poet, the lover, the soldier; and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, the creator of Futurism.

From 31 October to 3 November, on the 40th anniversary of Eduardo De Filippo's death, Domenico Pinelli directs and performs with Mario Autore and Anna Ferraioli Ravel Ditegli sempre di sì, a hilarious comedy. The protagonist is a methodical madman with a mania for perfection.

From 5 to 10 November, Antonio Latella directs Sonia Bergamasco in Carlo Goldoni's La locandiera, emphasising the extraordinary topicality of the first Italian text in which a woman is the protagonist; while from 12 to 17 November, Stefano Massini delivers Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf to the theatre in all its disconcerting scope as the paranoid autobiography of an invaded visionary.

From November 12-17, Stefano Massini delivers Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf to the theater in all its disconcerting scope as the paranoid autobiography of an invaded visiona

From 26 November to 1 December, Ugo Chiti rewrites for Alessandro Benvenuti one of William Shakespeare's famous characters: Sir John Falstaff. Falstaff at Windsor is the perfect profile for the actor, built on the historical dramas Henry IV and Henry V, as much as on the farcical figure in The Merry Wives of Windsor. While from 11 to 15 December, a theatrical journey with Toni Servillo in the Three Ways Not to Die, three moments in which some poets put into practice the art of not dying, and taught us to seek life.

From Dec. 3 to 8, Alessandro Preziosi and Nando Paone star in Aspettando Re Lear (Waiting for King Lear): Preziosi directs Tommaso Mattei's adaptation from Shakespeare that recalls Beckett's Waiting for Godot. Staged works and costumes by Michelangelo Pistoletto.

While from Dec. 11 to 15, a theatrical journey with Toni Servillo in the Tre modi per non morir (Three Ways Not to Die), three moments in which some poets put into practice the art of not dying, and taught us to seek life.

Ferzan Ozpetek returns to the Pergola from 27 December to 3 January with the adaptation of Magnifica presenza, one of his film successes.

From 14 to 19 January Rocco Papaleo stars in one of Nikolaj Gogol's greatest masterpieces, L'ispettore generale, adapted and directed by Leo Muscato.

From Jan. 21 to 26, Sarabanda, Ingmar Bergman's last film, comes to the theater with Renato Carpentieri, Alvia Reale, Elia Schilton, Caterina Tieghi directed by Roberto Andò.

From Jan. 28 to Feb. 2, Who is I? is an investigation of the psyche and the soul with Francesco Pannofino directed by Angelo Longoni, also author of the text. A psychological, psychedelic comedy that acts on viewers and characters in a realistic and visionary way.

From Feb. 4 to 9, Filippo Timi presents a new edition of his landmark Hamlet. He takes Shakespeare's text and with Elena Lietti, Lucia Mascino, Marina Rocco turns it upside down, overturns passions and characters in the same circus cage within which this eulogy of madness takes place.

From Feb. 11 to 16 Pier Luigi Pizzi directs Mariangela D'Abbraccio in a masterpiece of American dramaturgy signed by Tennessee Williams: The Glass Zoo.

From Feb. 20 to 22, Euripides Laskaridis in LAPIS LAZULI.

From Feb. 25 to March 2, Geppy Gleijeses is Pirandello's Il fu Mattia Pascal directed by Marco Tullio Giordana.

From March 4 to 9, Flavio Insinna and Giulia Fiume in one of the most striking texts on the Italian theater scenes, Gente di facili costumi by Nino Marino and Nino Manfredi, directed by Luca Manfredi. A whirlwind of disasters, misunderstandings, hilarity and melancholy, in keeping with the image Manfredi has left in everyone's memory.

On stage from March 11 to 16 is an unapologetic journey inside the bitterness of failure without redemption. Gabriele Lavia and Federica Di Martino tackle O'Neill's Long Journey to Night. A bitter work-confession, written by the author to take a “backward journey” through his life.

And again from 18 to 23 March a journey into the world of Nobel Prize winner Luigi Pirandello, directed and interpreted by Michele Placido who, with Valentina Bartolo at his side, celebrates over 50 years of career. Pirandello. Trilogia di un visionario brings together and embraces three iconic works.

From March 25 to 30, Goldoni's Sior Todero Brontolon is a comedy steeped in comic wit, a ruthless mirror of the bourgeoisie, scrutinized with a careful and precise eye, with Franco Branciaroli directed by Paolo Valerio.

Space will also be given to Luca Barbareschi in November from 1 to 6 April

From April 11 to 13 Pirandello Pulp by Edoardo Erba, with Massimo Dapporto and Fabio Troiano directed by Gioele Dix,interprets metatheater in a funny, intelligent and engaging key.

Neri Marcorè in La buona novella from April 15 to 17. A sort of contemporary Sacred Representation, weaving De André's songs with excerpts from the Apocryphal Gospels.

From April 24 to 27, Valter Malosti directs Manuel Agnelli and Casadilego in Lazarus, an extraordinary example of musical theater, written by David Bowie shortly before his death with Irish playwright Enda Walsh.

Finally, from May 15 to 18 Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota directs the Théâtre de la Ville Company in De Filippo's Grande Magia. The theme of truth and lies, dear to Eduardo, is transformed into that of illusion as a desperate refuge, between humor and transgression. An international production debuting as part of the partnership between La Pergola and Paris.