Molière, l’arte della beffa with Alessio Boni at Teatro Ambra Jovinelli, March 31 to April 11, 2027

Molière, l'arte della beffa, the show with Alessio Boni written by Francesco Niccolini and loosely inspired by The Life of Monsieur de Molière by Mikhail Bulgakov, is at Teatro Ambra Jovinelli from March 31 to April 11, 2027, at Via Guglielmo Pepe 43, on the Esquiline Hill (00185 Rome). The direction is by Roberto Aldorasi, Alessio Boni and Marcello Prayer. The production is by Nuovo Teatro, directed by Marco Balsamo, in co-production with Teatro Stabile del Friuli Venezia Giulia. There are 12 performances, with changing times: at 21:00, at 19:30 or on weekend afternoons. You get to the theater by Metro Line A, Vittorio Emanuele stop, a few minutes on foot, or from Termini by walking across the Esquiline Hill. Tickets are bought on the theater's official website, ambrajovinelli.org, which links to the authorized presale network, or at the theater box office. Prices are published on the network at the time of purchase.

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

He was meant to be an upholsterer like his father. He ended up in prison for debts with his first company, toured the French provinces for 15 years, returned to Paris to perform for Louis XIV and became the man of the theater most loved by the king and most hated by everyone else. That is how the theater presents the life of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known as Molière, which Alessio Boni brings to the stage like an adventure novel, up to his death, which happened, the presentation says, on stage, amid the audience's laughter.

Molière, l'arte della beffa at Ambra Jovinelli: dates, times and tickets

Molière, l'arte della beffa is at Ambra Jovinelli from March 31 to April 11, 2027, for 12 performances, with a day off on Monday, April 5.

The first week

Wednesday, March 31, at 21:00. Thursday, April 1, at 19:30. Friday, April 2, at 21:00. Saturday, April 3, a double performance at 16:30 and at 21:00. Sunday, April 4, at 17:00.

The second week

Tuesday, April 6, at 21:00. Wednesday the 7th at 19:30. Thursday the 8th at 21:00. Friday the 9th at 19:30. Saturday the 10th at 21:00. Sunday the 11th at 17:00.

Tickets

The purchase button on the official show page on the Ambra Jovinelli website leads to the presale network authorized by the theater, where you choose date, section and seat. Tickets can also be bought at the box office on Via Guglielmo Pepe. The show page does not list prices.

The cast

Alongside Alessio Boni, according to the official page, the rest of the cast is still being defined. The names of the other performers will be published by the theater later.

The show: Molière's life as a novel

Molière, l'arte della beffa tells the life of Molière from childhood to death, following the biography that Mikhail Bulgakov devoted to him: a text by Francesco Niccolini, with a dramaturgy signed by eight hands, those of Roberto Aldorasi, Alessio Boni, Francesco Niccolini and Marcello Prayer.

The grandfather and the Italian comedians

It all begins, according to the presentation, with a grandfather who takes his grandson to see the street shows of the Italian comedians. The boy, as soon as he grows up, abandons the family trade and gives himself to the theater.

Failure and the road

The first company is a disaster that costs him prison for debts. His father gets him out, and he leaves with a traveling theater. For 15 years he tours France and becomes, besides an actor, an author: first of awful tragedies, then of farces so funny that they bring him back to Paris.

The king and the enemies

In Paris he performs for the Sun King and becomes his favorite man of the theater. But the enemies multiply: envious actors, social-climbing courtiers, bigoted academics, profiteering doctors, hypocritical men of faith, dishonest merchants, betrayed husbands, parlor intellectuals. All covered in ridicule on stage, all ready to take revenge.

The end

Censorship, betrayals, the king's favor changing: Molière does not stop fighting for his company and writes his masterpieces. The presentation closes with the death on stage, the secret funeral and the tomb that, 100 years later, republican France will not manage to find. Hence the ironic hypothesis of an imaginary dead man still on tour.

Who Molière was

Molière, pen name of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, baptized in Paris on January 15, 1622, and died in Paris on February 17, 1673, was a playwright, actor and actor-manager. With Corneille and Racine he is one of the great authors of 17th-century French theater.

The upholsterer's son

His father, Jean Poquelin, was the king's upholsterer, a well-off craftsman. His mother died early. His maternal grandfather, Louis Cressé, took him to the Hôtel de Bourgogne and the Pont Neuf, where the Italian comedians performed. He studied with the Jesuits at the Collège de Clermont and then law. In 1643 he gave up the post of royal upholsterer.

L'Illustre Théâtre

On June 30, 1643, he founded with Madeleine Béjart the Illustre Théâtre, 10 actors. The company debuted in Paris on January 1, 1644, but the public did not respond, the debts grew and Molière was arrested for insolvency. In 1645 the company broke up.

13 years in the provinces

From 1645 to 1658 he performed as a traveling actor in the south of France, first with the company of Charles Dufresne, then at its head, between Pézenas and Lyon. It is there that he learned the trade and wrote his first comedies, The Blunderer and The Love-Tiff.

Paris and Louis XIV

On October 24, 1658, his company performed before Louis XIV, who was delighted by the farce The Doctor in Love. From there the Petit-Bourbon, then the Palais-Royal, and the great successes: The Affected Young Ladies, The School for Wives, Tartuffe, Dom Juan, The Misanthrope, The Miser, The Bourgeois Gentleman, The Tricks of Scapin, The Imaginary Invalid.

Death

Molière died on February 17, 1673, of tuberculosis. He was taken ill while performing The Imaginary Invalid and died during the night. A later legend has it that he died laughing while trying to perform his own lines. Today his tomb is at Père-Lachaise.

Alessio Boni, the biography

Alessio Boni, born in Sarnico, on the Bergamo shore of Lake Iseo, on July 4, 1966, is a theater, film and television actor, who graduated in 1992 from the Silvio d'Amico Academy of Dramatic Art.

Before the stage

At 14 he works with his father as a tiler. At 20 he leaves for San Diego, where he works as a waiter, a pizza maker and a babysitter. Back in Italy, he begins in show business in 1988, between theater and photo novels.

The Academy and the teachers

At the Academy he graduates with Orazio Costa, with a showcase drawn from Hamlet. He refines his craft with Luca Ronconi and performs for Peter Stein in A Midsummer Night's Dream and for Giorgio Strehler in Molière's The Miser, in the role of Cléante, in 1996.

The Best of Youth

Popularity arrives with Incantesimo, the breakthrough in 2003 with The Best of Youth by Marco Tullio Giordana, awarded at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard section. Boni wins the 2004 Silver Ribbon for best actor in a leading role, ex aequo with Luigi Lo Cascio and Fabrizio Gifuni.

Film and television

Next come Once You're Born You Can No Longer Hide and Sanguepazzo with Giordana, the film by Cristina Comencini nominated for the Oscar for best foreign film, Arrivederci amore, ciao by Michele Soavi, which earns him the 2006 Globo d'oro, and The Tourist. On television he is Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, Prince Andrei in War and Peace, Caravaggio, Puccini, Walter Chiari, Marshal Fenoglio from the novels of Gianrico Carofiglio.

Alessio Boni in the theater: the trilogy with Aldorasi and Prayer

Molière, l'arte della beffa comes out of the working group that Alessio Boni built with Roberto Aldorasi, Marcello Prayer and Francesco Niccolini, the same as for Don Quixote and the Iliad.

The Duelists

In 2015 Boni debuts at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto with The Duelists, from Joseph Conrad, which he directs with Roberto Aldorasi and performs with Marcello Prayer and Francesco Meoni. In 2016 he receives the Flaiano Prize for theater, for directing and for acting.

Don Quixote

In 2018 comes Don Quixote, with the adaptation by Francesco Niccolini and the direction of Boni, Aldorasi and Prayer: Boni is the knight, Serra Yılmaz is Sancho Panza. The show returns to the stage between 2022 and 2023.

The Iliad

Between 2023 and 2025 it is the turn of Iliad, the Game of the Gods, again on a text by Niccolini and with the same three-person direction: great stories of literature turned into actor's theater.

Merini and Prayer

With Marcello Prayer, Boni has also been staging since 2012 Canto degli esclusi, arranged for two voices for Alda Merini. In 2026 he was in Aeschylus's The Persians at the Greek Theater of Syracuse, directed by Àlex Ollé.

Bulgakov, Niccolini and the life of Molière

Francesco Niccolini's text is loosely inspired by The Life of Monsieur de Molière by Mikhail Bulgakov, the biography that the Russian writer devoted to the French playwright, published in Italy by Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli.

A novelist's biography

The Russian writer looked at Molière as a character, more than as a monument of literature. It is the same key chosen by the show, which presents Molière's life as if out of a novel and his death as no less so: a story of debts, escapes, triumphs and falls, told from the point of view of someone who makes theater every night.

A return

For Boni and Niccolini, Molière is not a new encounter: in Boni's theater repertoire there already appears, in 2021, The Man Who Eclipsed the Sun King, Life of Molière, written by Niccolini. L'arte della beffa picks up that thread with a dramaturgy by several hands and a production of a different size.

A show about the theater

In our view the real protagonist is the actor's trade: the company, the debts, the tours, the censorship, the audience. Whoever loves theater will find in it the story of every company, from four centuries ago to today.

A curiosity about Molière, l'arte della beffa with Alessio Boni at Teatro Ambra Jovinelli, March 31 to April 11, 2027

The best curiosity is a coincidence of names. Molière's father was an upholsterer. At 14, Alessio Boni worked with his father as a tiler, in Villongo. The actor who tells the story of the craftsman's son who ran away from the workshop to do theater has, in some way, taken the same road: from the family trade to the stage, through jobs of every kind, up to the Silvio d'Amico Academy.

The second concerns the Italian comedians. According to the biographies, Molière's grandfather took him to see the Italian comedians at the Pont Neuf and the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and as a young man Molière met the famous Scaramouche, Tiberio Fiorilli. On his return to Paris, in 1658, his company had the Petit-Bourbon theater on alternating evenings with none other than the troupe of the Italians. The greatest French comic author grew up watching Italian actors, and today it is an Italian company that tells his story.

The third concerns another Roman theater. In the same days when Boni is at Ambra, Quirino stages God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza, the same text in which in 2009 he played the lawyer Alain in the first Italian production, produced by none other than Nuovo Teatro. And Yasmina Reza has won three times the award named after Molière.

Teatro Ambra Jovinelli

Teatro Ambra Jovinelli was inaugurated on March 3, 1909, by the impresario Giuseppe Jovinelli, from Caserta, as a variety theater. It is on Via Guglielmo Pepe, on the Esquiline Hill, and it is the only Roman theater built in the Liberty style.

The facade

The project, after the contributions of Pietro Chiodelli and Giacomo Radiconcini, was entrusted in 1907 to Ulderico Bencivenga: a two-story facade with wide openings, a crowning with curved lines, stucco pilasters decorated with flowers and, at the center of the entablature, a shell with a human face.

From variety to the fire

Before the Great War, Jovinelli was one of the most important variety theaters in Rome. In the 1950s it became a variety cinema under the name Ambra Jovinelli, in the 1970s an adult movie theater. On April 29, 1982, a fire destroyed the structure.

The rebirth

In July 1996 a group of young artists occupied the abandoned theater. In 1997 the facade was placed under protection by the Ministry. On January 25, 2001, Ambra reopened as a comedy theater, with Serena Dandini as artistic director. Since December 26, 2010, the director has been Fabrizia Pompilio.

The hall today

The restoration rebuilt the early-1900s look and tripled the interior volume without touching the exterior. The hall was raised by five meters and underneath were created the Piccolo Jovinelli, a bar and other spaces. The cast-iron columns that held up the boxes now support the two galleries.

Something nobody tells you about Molière, l'arte della beffa with Alessio Boni at Teatro Ambra Jovinelli, March 31 to April 11, 2027

What is rarely said is how well suited the stage is. Ambra Jovinelli was born in 1909 for variety and comedians, was the theater of Petrolini and Totò, and was reborn in 2001 as a theater of comedy. Molière was a comic actor before being an author, the actor-manager of a company that lived on farces in front of a popular audience. In our view there is no hall in Rome more fitting to tell his story.

The second thing concerns Alessio Boni and Molière. Before playing him, Boni performed him: in 1996 he was Cléante in The Miser directed by Giorgio Strehler, the miser's son. At the premiere on September 9, 1668, at the Palais-Royal, the part of Harpagon, the miser, was played by Molière in person. 30 years later, the actor crosses to the other side, to play the man who wrote that comedy.

The third is practical: the times change almost every day. On Thursday the 1st, Wednesday the 7th and Friday the 9th of April it starts at 19:30. On Saturday, April 3, there are two performances, at 16:30 and at 21:00. Sundays are at 17:00. Checking the ticket twice avoids arriving at a closed curtain.

How to get to Ambra Jovinelli

Teatro Ambra Jovinelli is at Via Guglielmo Pepe 43, a short distance from Piazza Vittorio and from Termini station: Metro Line A, Vittorio Emanuele stop, is the easiest option.

By metro

From the Vittorio Emanuele stop, Via Guglielmo Pepe is reached on foot in a few minutes. Alternatively you get off at Termini, where lines A and B cross, and continue on foot across the Esquiline Hill, a quarter of an hour at an easy pace.

By train

Those arriving on regional trains can get off at Roma Laziali station, next to Termini, the closest to the theater.

By car

In the evening, street parking on the Esquiline Hill is hard to find: better to leave the car in a parking garage around Termini and continue on foot.

My advice for visiting Molière, l'arte della beffa with Alessio Boni at Teatro Ambra Jovinelli, March 31 to April 11, 2027

My advice is to arrive with at least one Molière comedy in mind. You don't need to have read them all: it is enough to remember the plot of The Miser, Tartuffe or The Imaginary Invalid to catch the allusions of a show that tells how those comedies were born, and why they infuriated half of Paris.

The second piece of advice concerns the performance. For those who come with kids, in our view, the matinee on Saturday, April 3, at 16:30 and the Sundays at 17:00 are the most convenient. The 19:30 performances leave time to have dinner afterward without getting home late.

The third concerns the ticket. Alessio Boni has a loyal audience, and the weekend performances fill up first: it's best to buy early, especially for the central seats in the stalls and the first gallery.

The last one: before going in, stop in front of the facade. A Liberty-style variety theater, with the shell and the human face at the center, is the right frame for the story of a comedian.

Another well-known fact, yet rarely mentioned

It is well known that Molière died on stage performing The Imaginary Invalid. It is mentioned less often that, according to the biographies, he actually felt ill during the performance and died a few hours later, during the night, at home. The version of the death from laughter is a legend born later. The show plays precisely on this border between history and legend, up to the idea of an imaginary dead man.

The second fact rarely cited concerns the French Academy. Molière was never admitted to it while alive, because the comedian was considered a hack actor, culturally inferior. The Academy made amends in 1774 with a statue and an inscription that remains famous: nothing is missing from his glory, he was missing from ours. Today the French language is called, by antonomasia, the language of Molière.

The third concerns Ambra: between the 1940s and 1950s the hall also hosted boxing events, with the ring set up in the theater, and in 1910 Ettore Petrolini signed with Giuseppe Jovinelli himself the contract that launched him. A stage born for variety and for the ring now welcomes the life of the greatest comic of the 17th century.

The Esquiline Hill around Ambra Jovinelli

The Esquiline Hill is the district between Termini, Santa Maria Maggiore and Porta Maggiore, with the Umbertine buildings built around Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II after Unification.

Piazza Vittorio

Piazza Vittorio is a large square surrounded by porticoes. In the gardens at the center stands the Porta Alchemica, with its enigmatic inscriptions.

The market

A few steps away is the Nuovo Mercato Esquilino, with spices, vegetables and products from half the world: a daytime market, to visit in the morning for those spending the day in the area.

Toward Monti

Walking up toward Santa Maria Maggiore and beyond you reach Monti, the district of workshops and small squares between the basilica and the Forums. The guide to the Monti district helps you choose a route before or after the show.

The right photo to take at Molière, l'arte della beffa with Alessio Boni at Teatro Ambra Jovinelli, March 31 to April 11, 2027

The right photo is taken outside, from the sidewalk across the street: the Liberty-style facade of Ambra Jovinelli, with the pilasters decorated with flowers and the shell with the human face at the center of the entablature. In the evening, lit up, it is one of the most beautiful theater facades in Rome, and it has something of a mask: a face looking at the street.

During the show the phone stays off: in an actor's show even the light of a screen breaks the pact with the audience. At the end, at the applause, a photo of the company on stage is the right keepsake.

The third is taken in Piazza Vittorio, in front of the Porta Alchemica: a stone enigma after the story of a man who, the show says, maybe never really died.

Where to eat before or after the show

The Esquiline Hill is the right neighborhood for those who want Chinese, Indian, Bangladeshi, Ethiopian or Middle Eastern food at low prices. For a Roman trattoria it's best to walk up toward Santa Maria Maggiore or move to Monti.

With a 21:00 start

For the 21:00 performances there are two ways: a long aperitivo around 19:00 and dinner afterward, or an early dinner, around 19:30, near the theater.

With a 19:30 start

On April 1, 7 and 9 the show begins at 19:30: you get out in time for a proper dinner in Monti.

The matinees

Saturday, April 3, at 16:30 and the Sundays at 17:00 leave the evening free: a late lunch on the Esquiline Hill and a dinner when you come out, without hurry.

Some important events that happened here in history

The history of Ambra Jovinelli reads by dates. On March 3, 1909, the theater opens with Raffaele Viviani and his sister Luisella, called by Giuseppe Jovinelli. In 1910 Ettore Petrolini signs with Jovinelli the contract that launches him. The documents of that relationship are kept in the Petrolini Collection of the Burcardo Library and Theater Museum. Between 1919 and 1921 Totò debuts and becomes the audience's favorite, presenting himself as an imitator of Gustavo De Marco.

In the 1950s the theater becomes a variety cinema under its current name. In the 1970s, an adult movie theater. On April 29, 1982, the fire. In July 1996, the occupation by young artists. In 1997, the ministerial protection of the facade. On January 25, 2001, the reopening as a comedy theater with Serena Dandini. On December 26, 2010, Fabrizia Pompilio's management begins.

In her own way even Molière has a Roman date in this history: his life, told by Bulgakov and rewritten by Niccolini, arrives on Via Guglielmo Pepe on March 31, 2027, in a theater that, like the halls where he performed, was born to make a popular audience laugh.

Who has passed through Molière, l'arte della beffa with Alessio Boni at Teatro Ambra Jovinelli, March 31 to April 11, 2027

The stage of Ambra Jovinelli has seen more than a century of Italian entertainment go by. In the Jovinelli family era there are Raffaele Viviani, Ettore Petrolini, Gustavo De Marco, Totò, and then Gennaro Pasquariello, Romolo Balzani, Claudio Villa, Nino Taranto, Lino Banfi, Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia, Rita Pavone, Alberto Sordi.

After the 2001 reopening came Ascanio Celestini, Marco Paolini, Lillo and Greg, Neri Marcorè, Valerio Mastandrea, Sabina and Corrado Guzzanti, Lella Costa, Moni Ovadia, Silvio Orlando, Paolo Rossi. Under Fabrizia Pompilio's management came Stefano Accorsi, Massimo Ranieri, Pierfrancesco Favino, Paola Cortellesi, Elio Germano and the works of Mattia Torre. In the 2026/27 season, among others, Luca Bizzarri and Arianna Porcelli Safonov pass through.

From March 31 to April 11, 2027, Alessio Boni, the company of Nuovo Teatro and Teatro Stabile del Friuli Venezia Giulia pass through Via Guglielmo Pepe, and with them, on stage, an entire court: Louis XIV, the Italian comedians, the doctors, the academics, the betrayed husbands and the fashionable ladies whom Molière held up to ridicule. And of course he himself, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, the upholsterer's son.

How to plan the evening at Molière, l'arte della beffa

Molière, l'arte della beffa stays at Ambra Jovinelli for two weeks, with 12 performances spread between evening, early evening and afternoon: there is a time for every kind of spectator.

For those coming from outside Rome

Those arriving by train at Termini have the theater a quarter of an hour on foot away. The matinees on Saturday, April 3, at 16:30 and on Sundays at 17:00 let you head home the same day without rushing. It's best to book the return train with a wide margin.

For those staying in the center

Those sleeping along Metro Line A arrive in a few minutes even for the 21:00 performances. For the return trip, it's best to check the last run on the Atac website.

When to buy

A popular actor, a new text and only 12 performances: in our view it's best to buy as soon as you decide, especially for Saturday evenings.

Accessibility, age and practical information

After the restoration, the hall of Ambra Jovinelli is five meters above street level. Those with accessibility needs should contact the theater before buying. The official website has a page devoted to spectators with disabilities.

With kids

Molière's life told like an adventure novel, with the king, the prison, the tours and the enemies, is in our view suitable also for middle school and high school students, especially if they have read one of his comedies at school.

Arriving on time

With times that change almost every day, it's best to check the ticket twice. The foyer fills up fast: better to be at the theater a quarter of an hour early.

Frequently asked questions about Molière, l'arte della beffa at Ambra Jovinelli

When is Molière with Alessio Boni on stage in Rome?

Molière, l'arte della beffa with Alessio Boni is on stage at Teatro Ambra Jovinelli in Rome from March 31 to April 11, 2027, 12 performances with times at 21:00, at 19:30 or on weekend afternoons. There are no performances on Monday, April 5.

Who wrote Molière, l'arte della beffa?

Molière, l'arte della beffa has a text by Francesco Niccolini, loosely inspired by The Life of Monsieur de Molière by Mikhail Bulgakov. The dramaturgy is by Roberto Aldorasi, Alessio Boni, Francesco Niccolini and Marcello Prayer, the direction by Aldorasi, Boni and Prayer.

Who produces the show?

Molière, l'arte della beffa is a production of Nuovo Teatro, directed by Marco Balsamo, in co-production with Teatro Stabile del Friuli Venezia Giulia. At Ambra Jovinelli it is on stage for two weeks, from March 31 to April 11, 2027.

Where do I buy tickets for Molière at Ambra Jovinelli?

Tickets for Molière, l'arte della beffa at Ambra Jovinelli are bought on the theater's official website, ambrajovinelli.org, which links to the authorized presale network, or at the box office on Via Guglielmo Pepe 43. Prices are published on the network.

Are there matinee performances?

Molière, l'arte della beffa at Ambra Jovinelli has three matinees: Saturday, April 3, at 16:30, and Sunday, April 4, and Sunday, April 11, at 17:00. On Thursday the 1st, Wednesday the 7th and Friday the 9th of April it starts at 19:30.

Who was Molière?

Molière, pen name of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, born in Paris in 1622 and died in 1673, was an actor, actor-manager and author of comedies like Tartuffe, The Misanthrope, The Miser and The Imaginary Invalid, during whose performance he was taken ill a few hours before dying.

How do you get to Teatro Ambra Jovinelli?

Teatro Ambra Jovinelli, at Via Guglielmo Pepe 43, is reached by Metro Line A, Vittorio Emanuele stop, a few minutes on foot, or from Termini by walking across the Esquiline Hill in a quarter of an hour.

The final advice on Molière, l'arte della beffa

Molière, l'arte della beffa is, in our view, the right show for those who love theater that tells the story of theater: the life of a comedian who made a king laugh and infuriated a city, entrusted to an actor who started with Strehler and The Miser and who for 10 years has been building great stories for the stage with Aldorasi, Prayer and Niccolini. My advice is to brush up on one Molière comedy before going, choose a 19:30 performance if you want to have dinner afterward or the Saturday matinee if you come with kids, buy early and stop for a minute in front of Ambra's Liberty-style facade before going in.

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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