The Riccione theater season returns to Spazio Tondelli 

After much anticipation, Spazio Tondelli returns to host the Riccione theater season. Completely renovated, the theater located at the intersection of Viale Ceccarini and Viale Don Minzoni welcomes the new season on Tuesday, November 3rd with Flusso , a captivating and poetic two-voice monologue performed by two of the leading figures on the Italian stage: Lino Guanciale , who also directs, and Gianmarco Saurino . Written by Christian Di Furia , Flusso was discovered and productively supported by the Riccione Theatre Prize, which awarded it the "Franco Quadri" special mention, before leading it to its recent and highly acclaimed debut at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan. The return to Riccione at the opening of the season is the culmination of a successful run.

The 26/27 season at the new Spazio Tondelli is the cornerstone of a cultural project set to unfold throughout the year . The prose program represents the first chapter of a much broader journey that will be presented and explored in greater detail soon, along with the full calendar of activities. A comprehensive program of festivals, meetings, projects dedicated to new generations, and international initiatives will develop around the theater season , with the aim of providing the city with not only a renovated theater, but a new venue for cultural production, research, and participation.

AFTER THE PREMIERE: THE BILLBOARD 

Attention to emerging talent in theatre writing is a distinctive feature of the entire 26/27 season. The programme features, for example, Niccolò Fettarappa and Nicola Borghesi , authors of the caustic and hilarious Uno spettacolo italiano (3 December). The show is not part of the season ticket but is part of a special under-30 programme dedicated to new drama: a selection of five shows created by Riccione Teatro to introduce younger audiences to new authors on the contemporary scene. Borghesi himself, together with the Kepler-452 company , is also in Riccione with Gli altri. Indagine sui nuovissimi mostri (21 January), a theatrical reportage on the phenomenon of haters that knows how to "enter with irony and poetry into the questions of our present" ( Sipario ). After the successes at the 2019 and 2021 Riccione Awards, Pier Lorenzo Pisano also returns to the city , who, together with the Gruppo della Creta – and Riccione native Daniela Giovanetti among the protagonists on stage – presents Nelle episodic precedente , a live episodic series that brings television serial narration into the language of theatre (7, 14 and 21 April).

Alongside emerging talents, the program features highly renowned authors such as Ascanio Celestini and Stefano Massini . The former is at the Spazio Tondelli with the monologue Poveri cristi (January 14), a “formidable, poetic, and political” example of narrative theater ( Teatro.it ), inspired by the incredible stories of people who no one notices. Massini closes the program with E l'Ape disse alla Vespa: “Sì, Ciao” ​​(May 24), a metalworking epic about Piaggio and the dreamy post-war Italy. A weave of collective and family stories, political passions, and private loves, it confirms the narrative talents of an author launched just over twenty years ago by the Riccione Prize and gone on to win five Tony Awards, the Oscars of American theater.

The tributes to Mattia Torre and Massimo Sgorbani also reflect avant-garde theatre . Torre's talent, a cult writer who passed away too soon in 2022, returns to the stage thanks to Fausto Paravidino , who directs Silvia D'Amico , Edoardo Pesce, Carlo De Ruggiero, and Cristina Pellegrino in Figli , an irresistible tragicomedy about the challenges of parenthood in contemporary Italy (November 21 and 22). Sgorbani, a leading figure at the Riccione Prize in the early 2000s, is presented with one of his most groundbreaking plays, Beata oscenità , dedicated to the incredible life of Giò Stajano, one of the first Italian men to become a woman, grandson of fascist hierarch Achille Starace, protagonist of Roman nights, and ultimately a lay nun in a Piedmontese convent (March 2, directed by Serena Sinigaglia , with Gianluca Ferrato on stage ).

Passionate writing and unforgettable sports stories blend in the shows Number 23: Life and Splendors of Michael Jordan by Federico Buffa (February 26, Alessandro Nidi at the piano ) and Barrilete cósmico. Maradona pedagogista by Christian Raimo (March 19, directed by Alessandro Di Murro ). Different in style and biography, the king of sports storytellers and the militant writer focus on two intergenerational legends: the basketball phenomenon obsessed with perfection, and the soccer genius who, with a masterstroke and a cinematic goal, made a World Cup match immortal.

The prose program is rounded out with two hugely popular French comedies. On February 3rd, Dear Parents will be performed , a play that, after 900 performances, is arriving in Italy with a cast led by Amanda Sandrelli and Giulio Scarpati: an ironic reflection on the connection between family love and money, written by Emmanuel and Armelle Patron , and directed in the Italian version by Antonio Zavatteri . Zavatteri himself, with Enzo Paci and the famous comedian Luca Bizzarri , will perform Our Women on May 6th , a brilliant comedy that has featured such giants of the French stage as Jean Reno, Daniel Auteuil, and Richard Berry. Written by Molière Prize winner Éric Assous , Our Women explores the male world and its fragilities by recounting the unsavory evening of three poker buddies, with sharp dialogue and constant twists (directed by Alberto Giusta ).

Along with these shows and the theater program for new generations, the program features two evenings with popular communicators and one of the most interesting dance performances of recent years. Renowned geologist Mario Tozzi , accompanied by singer-songwriter Lorenzo Baglioni and narrated by Carlo Lucarelli , recounts the current environmental crisis as a crime investigation ( Who Killed the Planet?, December 11, a special non-season ticket show, produced in collaboration with Geat to mark the company's thirtieth anniversary). Writer and philosopher Umberto Galimberti reflects on the disappearance of points of reference in our technology-driven world and proposes a new ethic, in which humans, like wayfarers, traverse the Earth without owning it ( Lo disorientamento e l'etica del viandante , January 26). Finally, the dancer Claudia Marsicano , winner of the 2017 Ubu Prize as best actress/performer under 35, launches into an ironic and poetic dive into the female body and the cult of image, masterfully interpreting the choreographies that Silvia Gribaudi created for her, inspired by the figures of Fernando Botero and Jane Fonda's aerobics classes ( R.OSA. 10 exercises in new virtuosities , March 11, given in collaboration with E' Bal – Stages for contemporary dance).

THE RENOVATED TONDELLI SPACE 

The artistic direction of Simone Bruscia , director of Riccione Teatro, sees the theater's reopening as an opportunity to reimagine a new cultural space. A space open to the intersection of arts, languages, and community, a vibrant, contemporary, and profoundly European space where theater meets music, dance, cinema, thought, and new drama, transforming the stage into a shared experience and a permanent opportunity for engagement with the city, the region, and the audience.

A place that seeks to be more than just the home of Riccione's theater season, but a permanent workshop for the contemporary scene, open to artistic research, new talent, cultural production, and international dialogue. A space where performances become experiences, languages ​​intertwine, artists meet audiences, and the theater once again becomes a community hub, capable of fostering relationships, thought, and new visions. Without fear of utopia, Spazio Tondelli thus chooses to present itself as a unique venue on the national scene: a European cultural center dedicated to contemporary art, where the stage is not a point of arrival, but the beginning of an ongoing dialogue between the arts, the city, and the world.

Alongside the season's performances, there will be the twenty-eighth edition of the Riccione TTV Festival , the Riccione Teatro for New Generations program , aimed at schools and families, as well as workshops, meetings, presentations, and new international initiatives. These include New Italian Scene from the World , a project promoted by Riccione Teatro with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, dedicated to emerging drama talent and the dialogue between the Italian scene and international artistic experiences.

SUBSCRIPTIONS AND TICKETS 

The season ticket includes 15 performances for €200. For those under 30, there is a reduced-price ticket, also valid for the entire season, for €120.  

Mario Tozzi's play Who Killed the Planet? is offered outside of the season ticket, while An Italian Show by Niccolò Fettarappa and Nicola Borghesi is part of a special program dedicated to new drama, available to viewers under 30: for the price of 30 euros, the five dates of An Italian Show , The Others. An Investigation of the Newest Monsters and In the Previous Episodes.

From September 14th, season tickets will be available for purchase at the Villa Lodi Fè box office, home of Riccione Teatro, or on Vivaticket.it and at Vivaticket sales points. 

Tickets for individual shows will be on sale, again at Villa Lodi Fè and on Vivaticket, from September 28th. 

For information and schedules: tel. 320 016 8171, biglietteria@riccioneteatro.it.