La scommessa at Teatro Golden, November 12 to 22, 2026

La scommessa at Teatro Golden: the comedy written and directed by Emanuele Barresi, with Gaia De Laurentiis, Fabio Ferrari and Emanuele Barresi, is on stage from Thursday, November 12 to Sunday, November 22, 2026, with the times of the subscription season: Thursday and Friday at 21:00, Saturday at 17:00 and 21:00, Sunday at 17:00. The theater is at Via Taranto 36, 00182 Rome, between San Giovanni and Appio Latino. The theater's website gives as useful stops metro line A at Re di Roma and San Giovanni, metro line C at San Giovanni and bus lines 650 and 8. The full-price ticket costs 35 euros at the box office and 30 euros online, with discounts for under-21s, over-65s, CRALs and legally entitled categories, to be requested at the box office. Tickets are sold on the official Teatro Golden website, which links to the authorized presale network, at the box office open every day from 15:00 to 20:00, or by booking at 06 70493826, also via WhatsApp.

Language: performed in Italian. No English version or English surtitles are announced.

La scommessa at a glance: dates, times, prices

La scommessa (The bet) is on at Teatro Golden for two long weekends, from November 12 to 22, 2026, with 10 performances spread between Thursday and Sunday.

The performance calendar

The first weekend starts on Thursday, November 12 at 21:00 and continues on Friday the 13th at 21:00, Saturday the 14th at 17:00 and 21:00, Sunday the 15th at 17:00. The second repeats the same pattern: Thursday the 19th and Friday the 20th at 21:00, Saturday the 21st at 17:00 and 21:00, Sunday the 22nd at 17:00. These are the times Teatro Golden applies to subscription shows and that the show's page gives for La scommessa.

The ticket price

The theater publishes two full prices: 35 euros if you buy at the box office, 30 euros if you buy online. The five-euro difference is reason enough to buy in advance. For discounts, available for those under 21, over 65, CRAL members and legally entitled categories, the theater asks you to contact the box office directly.

Who's on stage

There are three performers on stage: Gaia De Laurentiis, Fabio Ferrari and Emanuele Barresi, who also wrote and directed it. The production is by Centro Teatrale Meridionale Soc. Coop. They're three actors the public knows mainly from television, brought together here in a three-character comedy built around gambling.

Orchestra and aletta

Teatro Golden's booking form distinguishes two sections, the orchestra and the aletta (side wing). The hall has an unusual shape, with the stage in the center and the audience around it: when booking, ask the box office which position offers the best view for this production.

The plot of Emanuele Barresi's La scommessa

La scommessa tells the world of compulsive gamblers through two friends, a lawyer and a factory worker, and a wife who ends up, without knowing it, at the center of a wager.

Enrico and Michele

According to the theater's presentation, Enrico is a gambler who knows how much he can afford to bet and when it's time to stop. Michele, on the other hand, bets everything he has and goes into debt as far as he can, just to keep playing. The two belong to different social classes: Enrico is a lawyer, Michele a worker recently laid off. It's a classic comic pair, the cautious one and the reckless one, but with a difference in circumstances that makes the game more bitter.

Chiara

Chiara is Michele's wife. Enrico often wonders how she can stay with a man who has ruined the family with his vice. The answer the show's presentation gives is simple and ironic: Chiara, a beautiful woman with many qualities, fell in love with Michele many years ago, and she still hasn't gotten over it. The couple has a daughter who left home early and no longer wants to speak to her father.

The last gamble

The fragile balance holding the marriage together breaks with Michele's latest bet, which this time directly involves Chiara: the husband bets with his friend on his wife's fidelity. When she finds out, she forces both of them, husband and accomplice, into a reckoning that leads, the theater promises, to a surprising ending. As is only right, the ending isn't revealed.

A serious theme in comedy form

Gambling addiction is a subject light comedy rarely tackles. Barresi's choice is to handle it through the mechanism of the couple comedy, with the third wheel and the bet on fidelity, a motif as old as theater itself. In our view it's the right key for a hall like the Golden, whose audience is looking for laughs but doesn't mind a bitter aftertaste.

Gaia De Laurentiis, Fabio Ferrari and Emanuele Barresi

The three performers in La scommessa have very different paths: training at the Piccolo Teatro di Milano with Giorgio Strehler, fame born with a 1980s TV series, a career that grew alongside the films of Paolo Virzì.

Gaia De Laurentiis, from the Piccolo to television

Gaia De Laurentiis, stage name of Gaia Battistoni, was born in Rome on February 25, 1970. The daughter of theater director Carlo Battistoni and pianist Lucia De Laurentiis, from whom she took her stage surname, she studied at the French lycée Chateaubriand in Rome and at 17 auditioned for the courses of the Piccolo Teatro di Milano, from which she graduated in 1990. Right afterward she played Margarete in Goethe's Faust adapted by Giorgio Strehler and Clarice in Goldoni's Arlecchino, again with Strehler. In 1991 she shot Capitan Cosmo for Rai, directed by Carlo Carlei, alongside Walter Chiari in his last role.

Target and hosting

The general public got to know her as host of Target, Canale 5's Sunday late-evening program, which she led for four years until 1997. Then came Ciro, il figlio di Target on Italia 1, Changing Rooms on Canale 5, Stranamore on Rete 4 and, in 2017, Missione Green on La5. In 2026 she took part as a contestant in Pechino Express.

Gaia De Laurentiis's theater

Theater has remained her constant activity. Titles from the last 30 years include Diego Fabbri's Il seduttore directed by Giancarlo Sepe, The Vagina Monologues directed by Emanuela Giordano, Massimo Romeo Piparo's musical My Fair Lady in 2004, Marsha Norman's 'night, Mother with Valeria D'Obici, Lysistrata and Barefoot in the Park with Stefano Artissunch, Pierre Chesnot's L'inquilina del piano di sopra alongside Ugo Dighero, Norm Foster's Diamoci del tu, Kristen Da Silva's Dove ci sei tu and Antonio De Santis's Come sei bella stasera. On television she has also appeared in Sei forte, maestro, Io e mamma, Un medico in famiglia, Che Dio ci aiuti and CentoVetrine.

Fabio Ferrari, Chicco from I ragazzi della 3ª C

Fabio Ferrari, stage name of Fabio Vitta, was born in Rome on October 14, 1959, the son of actors Paolo Ferrari and Marina Bonfigli. He came to the theater almost by chance in the early 1980s, when an actor friend, Fabio Camilli, asked him to replace a missing performer in a comedy. He made his film debut with L'attenzione. Fame came with Carlo Vanzina's Vacanze in America and above all with the three seasons of I ragazzi della 3ª C, where he was Enrico Lazzaretti, known as Chicco, the likable perpetual repeater the public still associates him with. In 1990 he was squad leader Baldani in the series College.

Ferrari between film and stage

In film he has worked with Ettore Scola in Concorrenza sleale and Gente di Roma, with Pupi Avati in La cena per farli conoscere, Il figlio più piccolo, Un ragazzo d'oro and Il signor Diavolo, with Carlo Vanzina and with Enrico Montesano. On television he has appeared in, among others, Don Matteo, Distretto di Polizia, I Cesaroni, Alfredino and Canonico. On stage he has performed in Garinei and Giovannini's Il giorno della tartaruga with music by Renato Rascel, Le notti di Cabiria directed by Saverio Marconi, Goldoni's Le ultime sere di carnevale and the successful comedy Chat a due piazze by Ray Cooney directed by Gianluca Guidi. He's also a self-taught musician and has written about music.

Emanuele Barresi, author and director

Emanuele Barresi was born in Livorno on December 23, 1958. He started with the company Il Teatro del Carretto and in those years met Paolo Virzì, with whom he worked in an amateur company. From this came a long presence in the Livorno director's films: La bella vita, Ovosodo, Baci e abbracci, N (Io e Napoleone), La prima cosa bella, La pazza gioia, Notti magiche. After moving to Rome, he worked in TV dramas such as Turbo, Distretto di Polizia, I liceali and R.I.S. Roma. In 2008 he wrote and directed the film Non c'è più niente da fare. Since 2018 he has been in the cast of Il paradiso delle signore on Rai 1. In La scommessa he writes, directs and acts.

Teatro Golden, home of La scommessa

Teatro Golden is a 300-seat hall at Via Taranto 36, opened in December 2009 by restoring the former Cinema Golden, and devoted mainly to light comedy by contemporary Italian authors.

From movie theater to bingo hall, from bingo hall to theater

The story the theater tells on its website is one of urban regeneration. The building was the Cinema Golden. It was later turned into a bingo hall and then abandoned for more than 12 years. The conversion project aimed to return a central space in the neighborhood to its original role as a cultural venue. The theater opened in December 2009. Artistic direction is entrusted to Andrea Maia, who is also its founder.

An arena-style hall

The Golden's special feature is the shape of the hall: the stage is central and the audience is arranged around it, as in an arena. For a three-character comedy like La scommessa this means the actors play to spectators seated on several sides, and that the distance between audience and stage is short. It's a way of making theater that removes the protection of the fourth wall and asks the performers for constant presence.

The Golden Academy and the subscribers

Inside the theater the Teatro Golden Academy was born, a school of performing disciplines divided into Golden Actors, Golden Dance and Golden Music, for professionals and amateurs. The theater claims 3,000 subscribers. The season runs from September to May. June and July are reserved for the school's end-of-year shows. Besides comedy, the program hosts singer-songwriter concerts, morning classics for schools and dance shows.

San Giovanni and Appio Latino around Teatro Golden

Via Taranto is a residential street between Piazza San Giovanni and Piazza Re di Roma, in the part of the city that spreads outside the Aurelian Walls along the axis of Via Appia Nuova.

The basilica and the Scala Santa

From the theater you can walk to the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, Rome's cathedral, with its square and obelisk. Opposite is the Holy Stairs. Before a Saturday or Sunday afternoon performance the two visits combine without rushing.

The walls and Santa Croce

A little farther, along the Aurelian Walls, you reach the basilica of Holy Cross in Jerusalem. It's a neighborhood walk, away from the tourist flows of the historic center, suited to November days when it gets dark early.

A neighborhood of shops and everyday life

Between Via Appia Nuova, Via Taranto and the surrounding streets, San Giovanni is a commercial and residential neighborhood, with shops, bars and local markets. For those coming to the theater from out of town, it's a chance to see an everyday Rome, a few minutes by metro from the Colosseum.

Getting to Teatro Golden for La scommessa

Teatro Golden lists three metro stations, Re di Roma and San Giovanni on line A and San Giovanni on line C, and bus lines 650 and 8.

By metro

On line A the useful stops are Re di Roma and San Giovanni. On line C the stop is San Giovanni, which is also the interchange between the two lines. From Termini, line A takes you to San Giovanni in a few minutes. The walk from the stations to the theater is easy to work out on a map. For evening trips, especially after the 21:00 performance, check the metro's closing time on the transit company's website.

By bus

The theater's website mentions lines 650 and 8. To choose the nearest stop and check evening or Sunday runs, the ATAC journey planner is the most reliable tool.

By car and garages

The theater lists two garages nearby: Garage Monza at Via Monza 32, phone 06 70491996, and Autorimessa Urbino at Via Urbino 49, phone 06 45422791. Street parking, in a residential and commercial neighborhood, can take time on Saturday evening.

By taxi

For the trip back after the evening performance a taxi is the simplest option, especially if you live in areas far from the metro. Via Taranto is easy to reach from Piazza San Giovanni.

Tickets for La scommessa at Teatro Golden

For La scommessa, Teatro Golden applies the prices of subscription shows: 35 euros full price at the box office, 30 euros online.

Where to buy them

Online tickets are bought from the show's page on the theater's website, which links to the authorized presale network with the seating map. Alternatively you can fill in the booking form on the same page, giving date, time and section, or call or message on WhatsApp at 06 70493826, or stop by the box office at Via Taranto 36, open every day from 15:00 to 20:00.

Discounts

The theater offers discounts for under-21s, over-65s, CRALs and legally entitled categories. The amount isn't given on the website: ask the box office, which also handles the purchase of reduced tickets.

Subscriptions

The Golden sells five-show subscriptions for autumn and spring. If you're thinking of coming back several times in the season, ask the box office for the current conditions: the theater warns that the listed prices may change.

How to plan the La scommessa evening

La scommessa has two time slots, the 21:00 evening one and the 17:00 afternoon one, and the two choices lead to two different evenings.

The 21:00 performance

On Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 21:00, you have dinner beforehand, early, or afterward. In San Giovanni the neighborhood pizzerias and trattorias stay open late, and a comedy like this one usually lets out at a time still compatible with dinner. The show's length isn't published: if you have a train to catch, ask the box office.

The 17:00 performance

Saturday and Sunday at 17:00 is the choice of those coming from out of town, those with older kids or those who'd rather get home early. In November it's already dark at 17:00: build the afternoon around a visit to St. John Lateran in the early hours and the theater right after.

Where to eat nearby

Between Via Taranto, Via Appia Nuova and Piazza Re di Roma there are pizzerias, Roman trattorias, bakeries and neighborhood bars, with prices lower than in the historic center. For Saturday evening it's best to book: the neighborhood is lively and the most popular places fill up.

Accessibility, teens and practical tips

For access conditions to the Teatro Golden hall for people with reduced mobility, the reference is the box office, at 06 70493826: the theater's website doesn't describe them in detail.

With teens

La scommessa is a comedy for adults because of its theme, gambling, debts and a marital crisis, not because of any stated language. Teens from high school up can follow it, and the under-21 discount makes the evening more affordable for those coming with older kids.

Arriving on time

In a hall with the audience around the stage, latecomers cross the line of sight of the actors and the other spectators. Showing up a quarter of an hour early is the best rule, especially if you need to pick up your ticket at the box office.

A curious fact about La scommessa at Teatro Golden, November 12 to 22, 2026

The first curious fact about La scommessa concerns its three performers, who have more in common than it seems. Gaia De Laurentiis and Fabio Ferrari had already crossed paths on television: both their résumés include Sei forte, maestro, the 2000 series, and Io e mamma, the miniseries directed by Andrea Barzini in 2007. So in Sei forte, maestro, two of the three actors of La scommessa were already working on the same title more than 25 years ago. The second curious fact concerns Emanuele Barresi. For TV audiences he's one of the faces of a Rai 1 soap opera, Il paradiso delle signore. For film lovers he's a Paolo Virzì actor, featured in a long series of the Livorno director's films, from La bella vita to Notti magiche. For the audience of this comedy he's also the author and director. An actor who writes for himself and two colleagues knows exactly which strings to pull. The third curious fact is in the theater's name. The Golden keeps the name of the movie theater that occupied the building before the bingo hall and the 12 years of abandonment: a show about gambling is staged in a hall that, for a period of its history, was itself a gambling hall.

Something nobody tells you about La scommessa at Teatro Golden, November 12 to 22, 2026

Nobody says it, but the difference between the online ticket and the box office ticket at Teatro Golden is five euros, and for a couple it's 10: the price of an appetizer at the trattoria after the show. The theater's website says it clearly, 35 euros at the box office and 30 online, yet many regulars keep buying at the last minute. The second thing nobody says concerns the shape of the hall. The Golden has the stage in the center and the audience around it: if you're used to the Italian-style theater, with a frontal stage, you may find yourself seated to the side of an entrance or a dialogue. It's not a flaw, it's the language of the hall, but it's worth knowing when choosing your seat and asking the box office if, for this production, the orchestra or the aletta offers the better view. The third concerns the neighborhood. Many Romans from the center and north of the city consider San Giovanni far away. In reality metro line A takes you from Termini to San Giovanni in a few minutes, and line C links the neighborhood with the east of the city. If you leave the car at home you spare yourself the search for parking in a residential neighborhood on Saturday night, which is the real time wasted in the evening.

My advice for attending La scommessa at Teatro Golden, November 12 to 22, 2026

My advice for La scommessa at Teatro Golden is to choose the Saturday 17:00 performance and build an afternoon in San Giovanni around it. Set off around 14:30 from San Giovanni metro station, go into the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran and move on to the Scala Santa, right opposite. Then walk toward Via Taranto, along the neighborhood streets, stopping for a coffee. At 16:40 you're at the theater, with your ticket bought online in the previous days, at 30 euros instead of 35. When you come out it's long been dark, but it's still early: have dinner at a local pizzeria without impossible reservations and head home by metro before the Saturday night crowd. If you prefer the 21:00 performance, eat something light beforehand and save the real dinner for afterward. A second tip concerns seats: with the audience around the stage, the central orchestra position is the most balanced, but the aletta gives a different perspective on the actors. Ask the box office. The third tip is not to read too much about the plot before going: the theater's presentation promises a surprising ending, and it's right to let yourself be truly surprised.

Another well-known fact, yet one that is rarely mentioned

It's well known that Fabio Ferrari was Chicco Lazzaretti in I ragazzi della 3ª C, the series that made its young cast popular in the 1980s. It's less often mentioned that Ferrari comes from an acting family, the son of two actors, Paolo Ferrari and Marina Bonfigli, and that he came to the stage by chance, while on his way to a job interview: a friend, Fabio Camilli, asked him to replace a missing actor in a comedy. The rest came from that replacement. Equally rarely mentioned is Gaia De Laurentiis's path. The public remembers her as host of Target on Canale 5. Few know she was a student at the Piccolo Teatro di Milano, from which she graduated in 1990, and that she debuted as Margarete in Goethe's Faust directed by Giorgio Strehler. In 1991 she shot Capitan Cosmo alongside Walter Chiari, in his last role: a film that was the first Italian experiment in high-definition cinema. The third fact concerns Teatro Golden: before the theater there was Cinema Golden, then a bingo hall, then more than 12 years of closure. It's the story of many Roman neighborhood halls, and the Golden is one of the cases in which the story ended with a reopening.

The right photo to take at La scommessa at Teatro Golden, November 12 to 22, 2026

The right photo of an evening at La scommessa at Teatro Golden is taken outside, before going in: the theater entrance at Via Taranto 36, with the Golden sign lit and the show poster with the faces of the three performers. It's a photo that tells of the place and the evening together, and on a November evening, with the street lit, it has its own neighborhood atmosphere. The second photo is taken in Piazza San Giovanni, if you're coming from the metro: the lit facade of the basilica, with the large statues on the crowning, is one of Rome's most recognizable backdrops and frames well from the middle of the square, moving back toward the Scala Santa to get the whole facade in the shot. The third photo is the keepsake: at the end of the show, if the actors come out to greet the audience in the foyer, it's the right moment to politely ask for a picture. In the hall, during the performance, no photos and no video: with the audience arranged around the stage, a lit phone screen disturbs the actors and the spectators seated opposite, who have it in their field of view for the whole scene.

Some important events that happened here in history

The history of the building at Via Taranto 36 can be read in four stages. The first is cinema: the hall was born as Cinema Golden, one of those neighborhood movie theaters that in the 20th century dotted the Roman neighborhoods outside the walls and were the evening entertainment of entire families. The second stage is the bingo hall: like many neighborhood movie theaters in crisis, the Golden changed function and became a gaming hall. The third stage is abandonment, which the theater puts at over 12 years of closure: a large space in the middle of a populated neighborhood, left empty. The fourth stage began in December 2009, when the project to restore and convert the building, aimed at giving it back its cultural function, led to the opening of Teatro Golden, with its founder Andrea Maia as artistic director. Since then the theater has built an audience first in the neighborhood, then, thanks to an extensive advertising campaign, across the whole city, up to the 3,000 subscribers it claims today. The Teatro Golden Academy was born in the same building, with the sections Golden Actors, Golden Dance and Golden Music. In November 2026 the hall's history is enriched by a title that, with its theme, seems to talk directly to the years when bingo was played here.

Who has passed through La scommessa at Teatro Golden, November 12 to 22, 2026

Through La scommessa pass three careers that, put together, span 50 years of Italian entertainment. With Gaia De Laurentiis comes Giorgio Strehler's Piccolo Teatro, where the young actress was Margarete in Faust and Clarice in Arlecchino. With her comes Walter Chiari, her co-star in Capitan Cosmo, and directors such as Giancarlo Sepe, Maurizio Scaparro, Massimo Romeo Piparo, Nora Venturini, Stefano Artissunch and Enrico Maria Lamanna, and colleagues such as Valeria D'Obici and Ugo Dighero. With Fabio Ferrari come his parents Paolo Ferrari and Marina Bonfigli, his castmates from I ragazzi della 3ª C, the directors Ettore Scola, Pupi Avati and Carlo Vanzina, Garinei and Giovannini with Il giorno della tartaruga, Saverio Marconi with Le notti di Cabiria, Gianluca Guidi with Chat a due piazze. With Emanuele Barresi come the Teatro del Carretto of his beginnings, Paolo Virzì and his Livorno cinema, Silvio Soldini, Carlo Mazzacurati, Francesco Bruni and Rai 1's TV dramas. On the Golden's stage, since 2009, light comedy by Italian authors, singer-songwriter concerts, dance and the students of the Golden Academy have taken turns. Behind them all is the founder and artistic director Andrea Maia, who brought culture back to a building closed for more than 12 years.

The Teatro Golden season and the time of year

La scommessa arrives in mid-November, halfway through the autumn part of the Golden's program, which follows the formula of subscription comedies running for about two weeks each.

November in Rome

Mid-November is a quiet time for the city: after the long weekends at the start of the month and before the Christmas lights, neighborhood theaters are the evening event Romans attend most. The days are short, the weather often rainy: an indoor comedy, in a neighborhood served by two metro lines, is the practical choice for an autumn evening.

The rest of the season

The full season program is published on the Teatro Golden website, with the dates of each title and the conditions of the autumn and spring subscriptions.

Other visits nearby

If you have time before the afternoon performance, you can widen your loop beyond San Giovanni. To the north, along the walls, you reach Porta Maggiore, with the underground basilica, which can be visited only on dates and in ways set by the body that manages it. Toward the Caelian, the basilica of Santi Quattro Coronati is one of Rome's most intimate medieval churches. These are all destinations to check in advance for times and openings.

Frequently asked questions about La scommessa

When is La scommessa on at Teatro Golden?

La scommessa is on at Teatro Golden from November 12 to 22, 2026. Performances are on Thursday and Friday at 21:00, Saturday at 17:00 and 21:00, Sunday at 17:00: 10 performances in all over two weekends, from Thursday the 12th to Sunday the 15th and from Thursday the 19th to Sunday, November 22.

How much is a ticket for La scommessa?

The full-price ticket for La scommessa at Teatro Golden costs 35 euros at the box office and 30 euros online, according to the theater's website. There are discounts for under-21s, over-65s, CRAL members and legally entitled categories, to be requested directly at the box office at 06 70493826.

Who acts in La scommessa?

La scommessa stars Gaia De Laurentiis, Fabio Ferrari and Emanuele Barresi, who is also the author and director. The production is by Centro Teatrale Meridionale. The three performers are very well known to TV audiences: De Laurentiis as actress and host, Ferrari for I ragazzi della 3ª C, Barresi for Il paradiso delle signore.

What is La scommessa about?

La scommessa tells of two gambling friends, the lawyer Enrico and the worker Michele, and of Chiara, Michele's wife. When Michele bets with his friend on his wife's fidelity and she finds out, the situation tips into a reckoning that leads to a surprising ending. It's a comedy about gambling and about couples.

Where is Teatro Golden?

Teatro Golden is at Via Taranto 36, 00182 Rome, in the San Giovanni neighborhood, between Piazza San Giovanni and Piazza Re di Roma. It's a 300-seat hall opened in 2009 in the building of the former Cinema Golden, with the stage in the center and the audience around it.

How do you get to Teatro Golden by public transportation?

Teatro Golden can be reached on metro line A, Re di Roma and San Giovanni stops, and on metro line C, San Giovanni stop, according to the theater's directions. Buses 650 and 8 are also useful. For evening runs, check the ATAC journey planner before going out.

Can you park near Teatro Golden?

Teatro Golden lists two nearby garages: Garage Monza at Via Monza 32 and Autorimessa Urbino at Via Urbino 49. Street parking, in a residential neighborhood, can take time on Saturday evening. With two metro lines a few minutes away, public transportation remains the easiest choice.

Final advice on La scommessa

La scommessa is, in our view, a good chance to discover Teatro Golden, its arena-style hall and its neighborhood audience, with three performers TV audiences have known for decades and a comedy that tackles a serious theme like gambling addiction with irony. The advice is to buy online a few days in advance, to prefer the Saturday afternoon performance to combine it with St. John Lateran, and to arrive by metro: Barresi, De Laurentiis and Ferrari will do the rest.

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

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