Edipus by Tiezzi and Lombardi at Teatro Vascello, February 23 to 28, 2027

Edipus at Teatro Vascello in Rome is Giovanni Testori's Edipus in the production by Federico Tiezzi and Sandro Lombardi, on stage from February 23 to 28, 2027, at Via Giacinto Carini 78, in Monteverde Vecchio. There are six performances: Tuesday, February 23 through Friday, February 26 at 21:00, Saturday, February 27 at 19:00, Sunday, February 28 at 17:00. The show runs an hour and 20 minutes. Sandro Lombardi returns to the role of the Scarrozzante 30 years after the first time, alongside Antonio Perretta, directed by Federico Tiezzi. The production is by Compagnia Lombardi-Tiezzi, in collaboration with the Fondazione Teatri di Pistoia and the Associazione Giovanni Testori. You get to Vascello by bus 75, which stops in front of the entrance, or by lines 44, 710, 870 and 871. By train, from Ostiense station you go down to Quattro Venti, a few steps away. Tickets are bought from the official show page on the Teatro Vascello website, which links to the authorized presale circuit, or at the theater's box office. Prices are published on the venue's official channels.

Language: opera sung in its original language; no English surtitles are announced, so check with the theater.

Edipus is the final chapter of Testori's trilogy of the Scarrozzanti: a troupe leader abandoned by everyone who, night after night, stages Sophocles' Oedipus alone, playing every role. In 1994 Tiezzi's direction and Lombardi's performance won two Ubu Awards. Below you'll find dates and times, what the show is about, the history of the text, the biographies of Testori, Tiezzi and Lombardi, the history of Teatro Vascello, how to get there, where to eat and the most frequently asked questions.

Edipus at Teatro Vascello: dates, times and running time

Edipus has six performances at Teatro Vascello, from February 23 to 28, 2027, each an hour and 20 minutes long.

The schedule

Tuesday, February 23, Wednesday, February 24, Thursday, February 25 and Friday, February 26 at 21:00. Saturday, February 27 at 19:00. Sunday, February 28 at 17:00.

The running time

An hour and 20 minutes: the evening performances end around 22:20, the Saturday one before 20:30, the Sunday one around 18:20.

Who is behind the show

Text by Giovanni Testori. A show by Federico Tiezzi and Sandro Lombardi. On stage Sandro Lombardi and Antonio Perretta. Directed by Federico Tiezzi. Sets by Pier Paolo Bisleri, costumes by Giovanna Buzzi, lighting by Gianni Pollini, assistant director Giovanni Scandella.

The production

Produced by Compagnia Lombardi-Tiezzi, in collaboration with the Fondazione Teatri di Pistoia and with the Associazione Giovanni Testori, which is based in the house in Novate Milanese where the writer grew up.

What Testori's Edipus is about

In Edipus a provincial troupe leader, abandoned by his company, stages Sophocles' Oedipus alone, covering all the roles, from Laius to Jocasta, from Oedipus to Dionysus. That is the plot as Vascello's presentation tells it.

An abandoned troupe leader

The leading man left to work as a drag performer in a cabaret company. The leading lady quit the theater to marry a furniture maker from the Brianza. What remains is him, the Scarrozzante, alone with his theater and with the myth.

Delirium and madness

Night after night, alone, the troupe leader performs the whole Oedipus, in a crescendo of tension that leads to delirium. The level of the story blends with that of his disastrous life: Oedipus' resentment of his father fuses with the troupe leader's resentment of the leading man, and love and hatred for Jocasta overlap with his feelings for the leading lady, his former partner on stage and in life.

Deserted theaters

Around this Freudian axis, the most poetic images of the text are layered: empty theaters with their old lighting systems, stages far from the centers of the world where lost actors give voice to myth, night after night.

Irresistible comedy

Eros and politics, religiosity and a pantheistic sense of nature, lust for death and defiance of life, the grotesque and a claim to freedom intertwine with the dark colors of 17th-century Lombard painting. But, the presentation warns, the whole thing is constantly crossed by bursts of irresistible comedy.

Testori's language: dialect, Latin, French, Spanish

Edipus is written in an Italian that is half Lombard dialect and half a language reinvented through French, Latin and Spanish: a language that Vascello's presentation describes as mindful of Ruzante.

A pastiche

Already with Ambleto in 1972 Testori had perfected this language, a pastiche in which dialect inflections coexist with terms derived from Spanish, French and Latin. With Edipus he takes it to the extreme.

Words as fuel

In the text the actor immerses himself in words as in a fuel, to express the fascination of theater, at once religious and blasphemous. The Scarrozzante defends the theater that his companions betrayed, but which for him will exist against everything and everyone.

Poetry theater

The presentation speaks of a great text of poetry theater, a definition that ties directly to Tiezzi's path. From the mid-1980s he theorized precisely a theater of poetry, able to combine dramaturgy in verse and stage writing.

How to listen to it

My advice is not to try to understand every word. Testori's language arrives first through sound and rhythm, then through meaning. Letting yourself be carried along, as at an opera, is the best way to follow it.

The trilogy of the Scarrozzanti: Ambleto, Macbetto, Edipus

With Edipus, published by Rizzoli in 1977, Testori closes the trilogy of the Scarrozzanti, which began with Ambleto and continued with Macbetto.

Ambleto and the Pier Lombardo

On January 16, 1973 Ambleto debuted in Milan, opening the Salone Pier Lombardo, the theater founded by Testori with Franco Parenti, Andrée Ruth Shammah, Dante Isella and Maurizio Fercioni, on the ashes of the old Continentale cinema. Directed by Shammah, performed by Parenti, to whom the play is dedicated.

An imaginary company

From the friendship with Parenti came the idea of the trilogy: an imaginary company of players wandering among the lakes and the Prealps, performing, here today and there tomorrow, famous plots adapted as best they can.

From Shakespeare to Sophocles

After Ambleto, from Hamlet, came Macbetto in 1974, again from Shakespeare, and in 1977 Edipus, from Sophocles. In all three the high myth of great literature is contaminated with the life of ham actors, between vaudeville, melodrama and variety.

Who was Giovanni Testori

Giovanni Testori, born in Novate Milanese on May 12, 1923 and died in Milan on March 16, 1993, was a writer, journalist, poet, art critic, playwright, screenwriter, theater director and painter.

Novate Milanese

The third of six children, he grew up in the house next to his father's textile factory, along the tracks of the Ferrovie Nord. That house is now the seat of the Associazione Giovanni Testori, which collaborates on the show on stage at Vascello.

Art and theater

Already in high school he cultivated a passion for art and theater on his own, publishing his first articles before even coming of age. Painting, in particular Lombard painting, runs through all his work: not by chance, the presentation of Edipus evokes the colors of 17th-century Lombard painting.

Rizzoli and theater

With Rizzoli he published Ambleto in 1972 and Edipus in 1977. With the poetry collection Ossa mea he then moved to Mondadori. On April 12, 1983 he staged Post Hamlet, his third meditation on Hamlet.

After his death

Vascello's presentation recalls that Tiezzi and Lombardi's Edipus, in 1994, in the wake of the author's death, relaunched his dramaturgy.

Who is Federico Tiezzi: the director

Federico Tiezzi, born in Lucignano on December 13, 1951, is an actor, playwright and director. He founded Il Carrozzone, then Magazzini Criminali, and later Compagnia Lombardi-Tiezzi.

Il Carrozzone

In 1970 he moved to Florence and founded Il Carrozzone with Marion d'Amburgo and Sandro Lombardi. The first shows debuted in contemporary art galleries. La donna stanca incontra il sole, invited by Giuseppe Bartolucci to Salerno, established the company among the leading experiences of image theater.

Analytical and metropolitan theater

Then came Presagi del vampiro, Vedute di Porto Said and Punto di rottura, in dialogue with Dan Flavin, Andy Warhol, Vito Acconci and Alighiero Boetti, followed by Crollo nervoso and Sulla strada, from Kerouac, at the 1982 Biennale. Rainer Werner Fassbinder included two of their shows in the film Theater in Trance.

Poetry theater

From the mid-1980s Tiezzi theorized a theater of poetry. Genet a Tangeri won the Ubu for best show in 1984, Beckett's Come è the Ubu for directing in 1987. Between 1989 and 1991 he staged in Prato the Divine Comedy rewritten by Edoardo Sanguineti, Mario Luzi and Giovanni Giudici.

Rome

In 1991 he directed Manzoni's Adelchi for Teatro di Roma. In 1997 he opened the opera season of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma with Verdi's I vespri siciliani.

Testori and Pasolini

In 1994 he staged Edipus, with extraordinary success, and then Pasolini's Porcile. With Lombardi he continued the work on Testori with Cleopatràs in 1996, Due lai in 1998 and L'Ambleto in 2001.

Who is Sandro Lombardi: the actor

Sandro Lombardi, born in Poppi, in the province of Arezzo, on September 30, 1951, is a stage actor and writer, co-founder of Il Carrozzone and of Compagnia Lombardi-Tiezzi.

High school and Tiezzi

In his high school years he met Federico Tiezzi and began doing theater with him. In Florence he graduated in 1977 in art history with a thesis on Jean Fouquet, and in 1974 he took part in a show by Robert Wilson.

Testori's actor

Since 1994 he has been the reference performer of Testori's texts: Edipus, Cleopatràs, Due lai, L'Ambleto, with which he has won the Ubu Award for best Italian actor several times.

The voice

For the Radio 3 program Ad alta voce he read novels and stories such as Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini and Gli occhiali d'oro by Giorgio Bassani, Il gelo by Romano Bilenchi, Le terre del Sacramento by Francesco Jovine and Casa d'altri by Silvio D'Arzo.

The writer

He published with Garzanti Gli anni felici. Realtà e memoria nel lavoro dell'attore, a coming-of-age novel about the discovery of theater, music, painting and poetry.

Teatro Vascello, a research hall in Monteverde

Teatro Vascello was inaugurated on May 4, 1989 on Via Giacinto Carini by Giancarlo Nanni and Manuela Kustermann, with the company La Fabbrica dell'Attore.

The roots at Teatro La Fede

Before Vascello there was Teatro La Fede, at Via Portuense 78, where in the 1970s Nanni and Kustermann worked within what was called the Roman school, a theater that gave priority to image over word. Memè Perlini and Giuliano Vasilicò came out of the group, the same names of image theater alongside which critics then placed Tiezzi and Lombardi's Il Carrozzone.

Teatro Stabile d'Innovazione

In 1998 the Ministry recognized La Fabbrica dell'Attore as a Teatro Stabile d'Innovazione. In 2004 the Sala Studio opened. After Nanni's death, in January 2010, the artistic direction passed to Manuela Kustermann.

The February closing

Edipus closes at Vascello a February dedicated to reinterpreted classics, after Carmelo Rifici's Orestea and Virgilio Sieni's dance on Pasolini's Le ceneri di Gramsci.

A curiosity about Edipus by Tiezzi and Lombardi at Teatro Vascello, February 23 to 28, 2027

The best curiosity is a crossing of destinies in Vascello's program. From February 18 to 21, that is, until two days before the debut of Edipus, Virgilio Sieni dances on the same stage. At the start of his career he created choreography for Magazzini, the company founded by Tiezzi and Lombardi and born from Il Carrozzone. And Sieni's show is dedicated to Pasolini, the author Tiezzi and Lombardi staged right after Edipus, with Porcile. Within a week, then, the Monteverde stage hosts three protagonists of the Florentine scene of the 1980s, each with his own language. A second curiosity concerns geography. The critic Franco Quadri, reviewing the show, was surprised that the ideal interpreter of Testori, a thoroughly Lombard writer, was a Tuscan from the Casentino. Lombardi was in fact born in Poppi, in the province of Arezzo, very far from the Brianza of the furniture makers and from the lakes of the Scarrozzanti. A third curiosity concerns the title of the revival: the official poster simply writes 30 years later, and the role of the Scarrozzante, an actor who repeats the same show every night, is played by an actor who returns to the same character after three decades.

Tickets for Edipus at Vascello

Tickets for Edipus are bought from the official website of Teatro Vascello, which links to the authorized presale circuit, or at the theater's box office at Via Giacinto Carini 78.

Online

From the show page you reach online purchase. Vascello's website explains that this way tickets, subscriptions and cards arrive directly on your phone.

Cards and subscriptions

The theater offers cards for the 2026/2027 season, to be bought at least 24 hours before first use. With Orestea, Sieni and Edipus in the same month, they are worth considering for anyone who follows Vascello.

Prices

Prices are published on Vascello's official channels and on the authorized circuit.

A thing nobody tells you about Edipus by Tiezzi and Lombardi at Teatro Vascello, February 23 to 28, 2027

What nobody says is that Edipus is funny. Anyone who reads Testori, Sophocles, trilogy and 17th-century Lombard painting expects an austere evening, and instead the official presentation insists on the bursts of irresistible comedy that run through the text. The Scarrozzante is a ham actor, a provincial actor overwhelmed by his own life, who performs Greek tragedy with the means of a traveling puppet theater. The sublime and the ridiculous stand side by side, and the audience laughs and is moved in the same scene. My advice is to arrive ready for both. The second thing nobody says concerns the language. Lombard dialect mixed with Latin, French and Spanish is frightening on paper, but on stage, with a performer who has known it for 30 years, Testori's language becomes music. You don't need to understand every word to follow the story, which is Oedipus', known to everyone. The third thing concerns the moment: a revival after 30 years is a rare event, and it may not happen again. Anyone who saw the show in 1994 can measure the time that has passed. Anyone who didn't has the chance to see a piece of Italian theater history with its original performer.

The advice I give you for visiting Edipus by Tiezzi and Lombardi at Teatro Vascello, February 23 to 28, 2027

My advice is not to miss it, and to choose it calmly. The weeknight performances at 21:00 are ideal for those who live in Rome: an hour and 20 minutes of show, then a late dinner in Monteverde. Those coming from out of town pick Saturday the 27th at 19:00 or Sunday the 28th at 17:00, and build a weekend between the Janiculum and Trastevere around the show. Before going, it's wise to brush up on the plot of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex: the oracle, the killing of Laius, the marriage to Jocasta, the discovery. The Scarrozzante performs all of it, but distorts it, and recognizing the original scenes under the parody is part of the pleasure. If you have time, you can also read a few pages of Testori, to get familiar with his language. For those who have followed Vascello in February, Edipus closes a path: from Rifici's Orestea to Sieni's dance on Pasolini, up to Greek tragedy rewritten by a Lombard ham actor. Three ways of returning to the classics, and in our view it's worth seeing them all. Finally, book in time: six performances and a performer like Lombardi draw the audience of enthusiasts.

How to get to Teatro Vascello for Edipus

Teatro Vascello is at Via Giacinto Carini 78, in Monteverde Vecchio, and you reach it by bus 75, which stops in front of the entrance.

By bus

The 75 is the most direct line from the center. The theater also lists lines 44, 710, 870 and 871 as useful, which connect Monteverde with Trastevere and the neighborhoods to the west. For evening times it's wise to use the Atac route planner.

By train

From Ostiense station the metropolitan train takes you to Quattro Venti station, a few steps from the theater: the quickest way for those arriving by metro line B, connected to Ostiense by the Piramide stop.

By car

The theater suggests parking along Via delle Mura Gianicolensi, about 100 meters away. There are paid car parks at Via Giacinto Carini 43, at Via Maurizio Quadrio 22, which has an arrangement with the theater if you show your ticket, and at Via Raffaello Giovagnoli 20.

Another well-known fact, yet rarely mentioned

That Testori was a great Milanese writer is known to all readers. Less often mentioned is that he was also among the founders of a theater: the Salone Pier Lombardo, inaugurated in January 1973 precisely with Ambleto, the first chapter of the trilogy that Edipus concludes. Testori, put another way, did not write for the theater from the outside: he built it, with Franco Parenti and Andrée Ruth Shammah. A second fact known to insiders and little told: Tiezzi and Lombardi's Edipus, in 1994, came in the wake of Testori's death, in March 1993, and according to Vascello's presentation it relaunched his dramaturgy. From there came a posthumous partnership, with Cleopatràs, Due lai and L'Ambleto, which made Lombardi the interpreter of Testori par excellence and brought him more Ubu Awards. A third fact concerns Tiezzi. The director who gave stage form to Testori's Lombard language has also worked extensively in opera, and in 1997 he opened the season of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma with Verdi's I vespri siciliani: spoken theater and musical theater, in his path, feed each other.

The neighborhood around Teatro Vascello: Monteverde Vecchio

Monteverde Vecchio is the upper, residential part of Monteverde, above Trastevere, between the Janiculum and the great historic villas.

The Janiculum

The Janiculum is very close: the view before the Sunday matinee is the best way to prepare for the day.

The villas

Villa Sciarra and Villa Doria Pamphilj are the two green stops in the area. In winter the gates close early.

The Fontanone and San Pancrazio

Climbing toward the hill you reach the Acqua Paola Fountain and, a little farther on, the Basilica of San Pancrazio.

Trastevere

At the foot of Monteverde opens Trastevere, with the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere.

The right photo to take at Edipus by Tiezzi and Lombardi at Teatro Vascello, February 23 to 28, 2027

No photos during the show: in a monologue that lives on light, voice and the old lighting systems evoked by the text, a lit screen breaks the spell. The right photo is taken before and after. The first is the facade of Vascello on Via Giacinto Carini with the Edipus poster: a revival after 30 years deserves a keepsake. The second is for those who saw the show in 1994, or who keep a program from those years: photographing the old program sheet next to the new ticket is the most direct way to tell the story of the time that has passed, the same time that separates Lombardi from his first time in the role. The third is taken at the Janiculum, before the Sunday matinee on the 28th: Rome from above in the light of late February, with the theaters, churches and palaces of the city. It is an image that ties in with the text, which speaks of empty stages far from the centers of the world. Here, for once, the center of the world is right before your eyes. A rule that always applies: no flash, no video, no shots during the final applause while the performers are on stage, unless the theater says otherwise.

Where to eat before or after Edipus

Teatro Vascello has an in-house bistro, the Coffee Plant Bistrot, useful for a coffee or a snack before the show.

In Monteverde

The neighborhood has trattorias and pizzerias frequented mostly by residents, with fairer prices than those of Trastevere: the right choice after the 21:00 performances.

In Trastevere

After the Saturday 19:00 show it's worth heading down to Trastevere, where osterias and trattorias stay open late. Book on Saturday night.

On Sunday

The Sunday matinee on the 28th ends at aperitif time: a drink in Monteverde and then an unhurried dinner is the most natural conclusion.

Some important events that happened here in history

The history of Teatro Vascello is told through dates. On May 4, 1989 the hall opens with Qui non ci torno più by Tadeusz Kantor and the Cricot Theater of Warsaw: a statement of intent, because Kantor was one of the most radical names on the European scene. In the early 1990s Raul Ruiz, the Pontedera research center and American and French contemporary dance come through. In May 1996 the festival Extraordinario presents 16 young companies from all over Italy. In 1998 the Ministry recognizes La Fabbrica dell'Attore as a Teatro Stabile d'Innovazione, and in the same year Vascello co-produces a show with the Berliner Ensemble, the theater founded by Brecht. In the spring of 2001 the co-founder Giancarlo Nanni is the first Italian invited to work and teach at the Actors Studio in New York. In 2003 the Premio Valentino Zeichen dedicated to poetry is born, in 2004 the Sala Studio opens. In January 2010 Nanni dies and the direction passes to Manuela Kustermann. For more than 20 years the Fondazione Romaeuropa has brought part of its festival to Vascello, and in autumn 2026 the season offered, among others, Tragudia, Il canto di Edipo by Alessandro Serra: another Oedipus, a few months before Testori's, on the same stage.

Accessibility, students and practical information

Teatro Vascello publishes on its website a section dedicated to accessibility, to be consulted before buying to learn about access, reserved seats and services.

With students

Edipus is a valuable show for those studying 20th-century Italian literature or theater history: a classic of Testori's dramaturgy with its historic performer. Themes and language make it suitable for an adult audience and for high school students.

Punctuality

In a monologue of an hour and 20 minutes, arriving late disturbs everyone. Leave with time to spare, especially if you take the bus in the evening.

February in Rome

The end of February is a good time for Rome: fewer tourists, longer days, evenings still cool.

Who has passed through Edipus by Tiezzi and Lombardi at Teatro Vascello, February 23 to 28, 2027

On Vascello's stage and, even earlier, in the history of the company that founded it, some of the most important names in contemporary theater have passed through. At Teatro La Fede, the first venue in the 1970s, came the saxophonist Steve Lacy, the composer John Cage, the French director Gérard Gelas and the Living Theatre. Memè Perlini and Giuliano Vasilicò came out of the group. At Vascello, since 1989, have passed Tadeusz Kantor with Cricot, Raul Ruiz, the Pontedera Center, Teatri Uniti, Moni Ovadia, Carlo Cecchi, Giorgio Barberio Corsetti, Societas Raffaello Sanzio, Teatro Valdoca and Pippo Delbono. For dance, Enzo Cosimi, Sosta Palmizi, Virgilio Sieni and Wim Vandekeybus. Among the international masters, Bob Wilson, with whom Lombardi worked very young in 1974, and Peter Brook, who presented here Beckett's Happy Days with Natasha Parry. Manuela Kustermann, actress and artistic director, is the constant presence in this history. From February 23 to 28, 2027 Federico Tiezzi and Sandro Lombardi pass through Vascello, founders of Il Carrozzone and of Magazzini, protagonists of half a century of Italian theater, with Antonio Perretta, the set designer Pier Paolo Bisleri, the costume designer Giovanna Buzzi and the lighting designer Gianni Pollini. And with them, ideally, Giovanni Testori, Franco Parenti, the Scarrozzante and his imaginary company of ham actors, and of course Oedipus, Jocasta and Laius.

Frequently asked questions about Edipus at Teatro Vascello

When is Edipus on at Teatro Vascello?

Testori's Edipus, with Tiezzi and Lombardi, is at Teatro Vascello from February 23 to 28, 2027: Tuesday 23 through Friday 26 at 21:00, Saturday 27 at 19:00, Sunday 28 at 17:00. The show runs an hour and 20 minutes.

Who is in Edipus?

Edipus stars Sandro Lombardi, who returns to the role of the Scarrozzante 30 years after the first time, and Antonio Perretta. It is directed by Federico Tiezzi. The production is by Compagnia Lombardi-Tiezzi.

What is Testori's Edipus about?

Testori's Edipus tells of a troupe leader abandoned by his company who, night after night, stages Sophocles' Oedipus alone, playing all the roles and blending myth with his own life. It is the final chapter of the trilogy of the Scarrozzanti.

What language is Edipus written in?

Edipus is written in a language invented by Giovanni Testori, half Lombard dialect and half Italian reinvented through Latin, French and Spanish. You don't need to understand every word: the plot is the familiar one of Oedipus.

Why do people say 30 years later?

Tiezzi and Lombardi's Edipus debuted in 1994, in the wake of Testori's death, and won the Ubu Award for directing and for Lombardi's performance. The revival at Vascello comes 30 years after that first staging.

Where do you buy tickets for Edipus?

Tickets for Edipus are bought from the show page on the Teatro Vascello website, which links to the authorized presale circuit, or at the box office at Via Giacinto Carini 78. Prices are on the theater's official channels.

How do you get to Teatro Vascello?

Teatro Vascello, at Via Giacinto Carini 78 in Monteverde Vecchio, is reached by bus 75, which stops in front of the entrance, by lines 44, 710, 870 and 871, or by train from Ostiense to Quattro Venti station.

Final advice on Edipus

Edipus is one of those revivals that happen once: the show that in 1994 relaunched Testori, with the same director and the same performer, 30 years later. In our view it's best to see it without fear of the language, ready to laugh and be moved in the same scene, and perhaps after also seeing in February Rifici's Orestea and Sieni's dance on the same stage. Book in time, reread Oedipus Rex in broad strokes, arrive with time to spare: Lombardi does the rest.

Article written by the editorial team of Tour Leader Pro, contact them for Private/Corporate/V.I.P. Tours and Experiences.

Planning a trip to Rome? The English-language guides to visiting the city are on ItalyPlanner.com.