TEATRO NEL BORGO

Date

4 July

Time

21:30–23:00

Cinema Arena Vittoria

The appointment with Massimo Polidoro at Borghetto Santo Spirito doubles, at 9:30 PM, at Teatro nel Borgo, at Arena Cinema Vittoria. The science communicator and collaborator of Alberto Angela will bring to the stage “A Life Well Spent”, a gripping theatrical performance produced by Sava Produzioni Creative and based on the homonymous book published by Mondadori Libri. What is a life well spent? How can we transform doubt into understanding and wonder into revolutionary ideas? Drawing inspiration from his new book, A Life Well Spent (Mondadori), Massimo Polidoro takes us on a surprising journey through the lives of Leonardo da Vinci, Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein. Three giants who, with brilliant intuitions and illuminating mistakes, changed the way we see the world. On stage, we will discover Leonardo’s boundless curiosity, Darwin’s courage in questioning the obvious and Einstein’s imagination that defies every dogma. It is not just science: it is an invitation to open ourselves to the new, to look at daily challenges with bold eyes and to recognize the value of knowledge to guide our future. With moving stories, evocative images and engaging reflections, “A Life Well Spent” reawakens the desire to explore, to create and to embrace the world as an infinite laboratory of ideas. We will discover how a simple research method can become a method of life, capable of guiding us towards freer and more conscious decisions. Every word, every choice, every action contributes to writing our story, and the masters of the past push us not to waste a single moment. Prepare yourself to discover a new perspective and the burning desire to spend life in a richer and more conscious way. The appointment with Massimo Polidoro at Borghetto Santo Spirito is also at 6:00 PM at the Polivalente Hall of Palazzo E.Pietracaprina, where the author and science communicator will present “The Mystery of the Origins of Man”. Learn more Teatro nel Borgo will return on July 18 with Philosopher Telmo Pievani; on July 24 with the multifaceted comic musical-theatrical group Oblivion; on August 12 with the histrionic Paolo Hendel; on August 26 with comedian Raul Cremona, to end on September 5 with a theatrical and musical performance dedicated to the unforgettable Ornella Vanoni, by her friend and collaborator Pacifico. The performances are free admission, until seats are exhausted. No reservation needed. —- Massimo Polidoro, journalist, writer, university lecturer and science communicator, is the author of over sixty books and more than a thousand articles published in Focus and numerous international publications. Author, presenter and consultant of numerous television programs, he was a regular presence on Superquark alongside Piero Angela and is now on Noos with Alberto Angela. Known for his scientific investigations into alleged mysteries, he co-founded CICAP (Italian Committee for the Control of Claims on Pseudosciences). He taught Psychology of the Unusual at the University of Milan and today teaches Science Communication at the Polytechnic of Milan and the University of Padova. He carries out a very lively dissemination activity, followed by over 500,000 followers on various platforms (especially Youtube and Instagram), which he accompanies with a series of successful podcasts and many other projects. Very active as a lecturer, he has brought to the theater I, Leonardo da Vinci and The Mystery of Darwin. For his dissemination work, an asteroid has been dedicated to him, “Polidoro193818”, and he has been transformed several times into a character in comics, on Topolino, Lupo Alberto and Martin Mystèr.

Date

18 July

Time

21:30–23:00

Cinema Arena Vittoria

The appointment with Telmo Pievani , following the presentation of his book at 6:00 PM ( https://visitborghetto.it/eventi/telmo-pievani-presenta-uniti-per-la-vita-storie-di-simbiosi-e-cooperazione ) returns at 9:30 PM with the Teatro nel Borgo festival, in the evocative setting of the historic Cinema Vittoria arena , with the show “Darwin’s Crime. Story of a Dreadful Secret”, written and performed by philosopher and evolutionist Telmo Pievani. The show tells the years in which Darwin, returning from his voyage on the Beagle, kept his revolutionary theory hidden for twenty years, torn between his discoveries and his fear of upsetting Victorian society. There is a secret in the life of the greatest English naturalist. He was still a boy when he returned with the Beagle from his voyage around the world in 1836. An initiation among the oceans, a coming-of-age novel. In his head, many observations, many memories, visions, terrible seasickness and an idea that emerges, revolutionary. He writes it down in London in certain small notebooks and it grows, increasingly burdensome: the tree of life, or rather the coral; natural selection; we are all relatives, down to the humblest worm; no Providence has brought us here. A single great network binds all living things together. But how can he tell others? Another five-year journey, entirely mental this time, and by 1841 the notebooks are finished: the theory of evolution has been conceived. And so Charles Darwin makes his choice: he decides to keep his notes secret, even from his wife Emma, in a drawer, forever. He even packages them for a posthumous edition, adding a heartbreaking letter. He is afraid of the consequences, mind you not from the Church (he came from two secular and libertine families), but from society and his colleagues. They won’t take it well, the dethroning of man from the center of nature. No, they won’t take it well at all. Better to keep quiet, devote himself to other things, to geology, to barnacles. In contumacy. For twenty years two Darwins will exist: the public one, the darling of English science, and the private one, the materialist revolutionary, in his refuge in Kent. To a friend, in 1844, he will let slip a word and confess that he has committed a “crime”, an assassination to be precise, but he will not add further details. He knows that the hiding will not be able to last forever. Sooner or later he will be discovered. He vomits every morning. He begins to exchange letters with a naturalist younger than him, Alfred R. Wallace, lost among the spice islands, and understands with dismay that he has independently arrived at the same conclusions. Revelation at this point is inevitable and it will be a drama, not without comedy. The solemn announcement of Darwin and Wallace’s revolutionary theory, on July first 1858 at the Linnean Society, in the midst of London’s great stench, will receive no attention. He escapes to take spa treatments. When he is already 50 years old, in thirteen months he will write his masterpiece, The Origin of Species, but this is a story everyone knows. A breathtaking show about Darwin’s little-known history before he became Darwin, the sad icon with the long white beard we study in school. A portrait of Victorian England through the fears, the torments, the illuminations and the reluctances of an antihero, hypochondriac and mild. While locomotives clang, canals open, steam engines come to life, a lonely man understands the laws of evolution and is frightened. A parade of characters brushes past him, from Samuel Coleridge to Benjamin Franklin, from Alexander von Humboldt to Charles Dickens, from Thomas Malthus to Alfred Tennyson. A theatrical story unbeknownst to him, with plot twists and a tragicomic ending. Telmo Pievani Evolutionist, philosopher of science, Darwin historian, essayist, he teaches Philosophy of Biological Sciences in the Department of Biology at the University of Padova and is a visiting scientist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. From 2017 to 2019 he was President of the Italian Society of Evolutionary Biology. Author of 375 publications, translated into many languages, his best-known books are: Darwin (Laterza, 2012); Imperfezione (Cortina, 2019); Finitudine (Cortina, 2020); Serendipità (Cortina, 2021); La natura è più grande di noi (Solferino, 2022); Tutti i mondi possibili (Cortina, 2024). Member of important scientific societies and the Editorial Board of international journals, he directs the Pikaia and Lucy sui Mondi portals. Winner of 17 awards, author of books for children on evolution, together with Banda Osiris, the “Deproducers” collective, Marco Paolini and Cristiano Godano, he is the creator of theatrical and musical projects on scientific themes. From 2024 he brings to the stage “Nomadic – Canto per la biodiversità”, written and created together with Gianni Maroccolo, directed by Mariano De Tassis. He collaborates with Il Corriere della Sera and with the magazines Le Scienze and Micromega. He has curated and introduced several works and selections of letters by Charles Darwin, including the “Notebooks on Transmutation” (Laterza, 2008). In 2026 his author’s translation of The Origin of Species for Einaudi will be released. The Teatro nel Borgo Festival returns on Friday July 24 at 9:30 PM with Oblivion , with the show “Oblivion Collection” . The shows are free admission, subject to available seating. No reservation required.

Date

24 July

Time

21:30–23:00

Cinema Arena Vittoria

Great anticipation on Friday, July 24th for the third appointment of the “Teatro nel Borgo” series, at the Arena Cinema Vittoria on Via Marexiano. At 9:30 PM arrives the comic-musical show “Oblivion Collection” a distilled artistic selection of the Oblivion , the five most versatile performers of the Italian theatrical and musical scene. Five voices and a guitar, the triumph of parody, the funniest pieces from the Oblivion collection packed into 90 minutes. This is what you can expect from Oblivion Collection, the group’s High Rotation playlist, a story made of songs yes, but songs by others. In the selection there will be some special contents in limited edition: pieces from their virtual masters that they will perform in full without even changing the words. A real shock that no one is ready for. Halfway between a concert and a chat, the Oblivion will become before your eyes the five of the Promessi Sposi in 10 minutes, the five degrees of separation between Queen and Gianni Morandi, the five of Sanremo parodies and the five of the Ave Maria Remix. While still managing to maintain the status of five charlatans. The Oblivion met in 2003 in Bologna. They spend intense years devoted to revue theatre and musicals, then in 2009 they become very famous to the general public thanks to their YouTube video I Promessi Sposi in 10 minutes, a micro-musical watched and emulated by millions of users. From that moment on, they begin long theatrical tours with the shows: Oblivion Show and Oblivion Show 2.0. Il Sussidiario (2011), directed by Gioele Dix; Othello, la H è muta with the directorial consultation of Giorgio Gallione (2013); Oblivion.zip (2014); The Human Jukebox, with the directorial consultation of Giorgio Gallione (2015); La Bibbia riveduta e scorretta (2018), Oblivion Rhapsody (2021) and Tuttorial (2023) directed by Giorgio Gallione. The Oblivion combine their theatrical and web activities – where they publish their famous mashups and parodies at a constant pace – with appearances in TV and radio programs, where they perform with their hits. In particular, they are part of the cast of Zelig (Canale 5, 2011, 2023) and Onlyfun (Nove, 2021, 2022, 2024). Teatro nel Borgo returns Wednesday, August 12th at 9:30 PM with Paolo Hendel in “Tempi Moderni” . The shows are free admission, until seats are exhausted. No reservation required. Photo: © Laila Pozzo

Date

12 August

Time

21:30–23:00

Cinema Arena Vittoria

On Wednesday, August 12, at 21.30, Cinema Arena Vittoria hosts “Modern Times” with Paolo Hendel, accompanied by Renato Cantini on trumpet and Michele Staino on double bass. The event is part of “Teatro nel Borgo” and “Serate Incantate”. Admission is free while places last. The show, written by Hendel with Marco Vicari, looks at the present with irony, combining comedic dialogue with live music.

Date

26 August

Time

21:30–23:00

Cinema Arena Vittoria

Wednesday, August 26, at 9:30 PM, Cinema Arena Vittoria hosts “Raul Cremona Live”, with Raul Cremona accompanied on piano by Gabriele Gentilei. The event is part of the “Teatro nel Borgo” series and the “Serate Incantate” programme. Entry is free until seats are exhausted. The evening combines comedy, magic and scenic storytelling, relying on the presence of an artist capable of transforming the stage into a surreal and entertaining world.

Date

5 September

Time

21:30–23:00

Cinema Arena Vittoria

Saturday, September 5th, at 21.30, Cinema Arena Vittoria hosts “Sentimental Diary of a Free Woman”, a tribute by Pacifico to Ornella Vanoni, with Pacifico, Carlo Gaudiello on piano and Elisa Parmegiani on vocals. The event is part of “Teatro nel Borgo” and “Serate Incantate”. Entrance is free until seats are available.