Loosely based on Nicola Lagioia’s bestselling novel, directed and adapted for the stage by Ivonne Capece, *La città dei vivi* brings to the stage a descent into a moral hell that belongs not only to the protagonists but to an entire society.
The City of the Living
Nicola Lagioia / Ivonne Capece
© Luca Del Pia
Right of First Refusal
1 hour 45 minutes
16+
!
LAC+ members have first refusal starting December 1.
Sales open to the general public starting December 8.
Recommended for ages 16 and up
The play “La città dei vivi” is a work of fiction, though loosely based on a novel that deals with real-life events known to the public. It is not intended to be informative, documentary, or journalistic, nor does it aim to faithfully represent actual events, people, or established responsibilities. On the contrary, it is an artistic work, an expression of the right to creative freedom, aimed at exploring universal themes through the tools of the stage: metaphor, hyperbole, symbolic transfiguration, and the imagination. Any references to recognizable names, situations, or dynamics are the result of dramatic elaboration and should not be understood as truthful statements or reliable reconstructions of the facts. The work does not aim to inform or provide truth, but rather to stimulate artistic and human reflection. Under no circumstances should the performance be interpreted as an accusation, insinuation, or actual judgment against any potentially recognizable individuals. Every narrative element aims to reinterpret the specific events to tell a universal story, presented in a poetic, symbolic, and provocative manner.
Teatro Foce
25.-
Wed 20.01
20:00
The City of the Living
Nicola Lagioia / Ivonne Capece
© Luca Del Pia
Right of First Refusal
1 hour 45 minutes
16+
!
LAC+ members have first refusal starting December 1.
Sales open to the general public starting December 8.
Recommended for ages 16 and up
The play “La città dei vivi” is a work of fiction, though loosely based on a novel that deals with real-life events known to the public. It is not intended to be informative, documentary, or journalistic, nor does it aim to faithfully represent actual events, people, or established responsibilities. On the contrary, it is an artistic work, an expression of the right to creative freedom, aimed at exploring universal themes through the tools of the stage: metaphor, hyperbole, symbolic transfiguration, and the imagination. Any references to recognizable names, situations, or dynamics are the result of dramatic elaboration and should not be understood as truthful statements or reliable reconstructions of the facts. The work does not aim to inform or provide truth, but rather to stimulate artistic and human reflection. Under no circumstances should the performance be interpreted as an accusation, insinuation, or actual judgment against any potentially recognizable individuals. Every narrative element aims to reinterpret the specific events to tell a universal story, presented in a poetic, symbolic, and provocative manner.
Teatro Foce
25.-
Wed 20.01
20:00
An absurd and brutal crime—one of the most shocking cases in recent Italian crime news—becomes the subject of a play. The play is based on the 2016 murder of Luca Varani in Rome: two young men, seemingly well-adjusted and without any apparent motive, tortured and killed a peer. Starting from this true story, Nicola Lagioia constructs a narrative investigation that does not seek simple explanations but delves into the darkness of the human conscience, questioning the boundary between guilt and normality, between monstrosity and everyday life.
In *La città dei vivi*, Lagioia places at the center not only the crime but also Rome, which becomes a powerful metaphor for humanity: alive, sprawling, dark, capable of both attracting and devouring. A city that pulsates with desires, illusions, loneliness, and failures, transforming itself into a full-fledged character on the stage.
The protagonists move through a spiral of fascination and repulsion, guided by sharp dramaturgy and a language that blends narrative, confession, and testimony, calling on the audience to look where they would normally avert their gaze.
The performance plays on the alternation between presence and absence: the flesh-and-blood actors interact with virtual presences, projections, and holograms that expand the stage space, placing the action in a dimension suspended between theater and video art.