Perfetti sconosciuti by Paolo Genovese at Teatro Ambra Jovinelli, May 19 to 23, 2027

Perfetti sconosciuti, the stage adaptation Paolo Genovese made from his 2016 film, is on at Teatro Ambra Jovinelli, Via Guglielmo Pepe 43, in the Esquilino, from May 19 to 23, 2027. There are five performances: Wednesday the 19th at 21:00, Thursday the 20th at 19:30, Friday the 21st and Saturday the 22nd at 21:00, and Sunday the 23rd at 17:00. On stage are Dino Abbrescia, Alice Bertini, Paolo Briguglia, Paolo Calabresi, Massimo De Lorenzo, Cristina Pellegrino and Valeria Solarino. The show runs 80 minutes, in one act. The theater is a few minutes' walk from the Vittorio Emanuele stop on Metro A. Prices are published on the official Teatro Ambra Jovinelli website, which leads to the presale network authorized by the organizer. Tickets are also sold at the theater box office.

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

Perfetti sconosciuti at Ambra Jovinelli: dates, times and tickets

Perfetti sconosciuti, Perfect Strangers, stays at Ambra Jovinelli for five days, from Wednesday, May 19 to Sunday, May 23, 2027, with one performance a day at three different times.

The calendar

The calendar published by the theater is this: Wednesday, May 19 at 21:00, Thursday the 20th at 19:30, Friday the 21st at 21:00, Saturday the 22nd at 21:00 and Sunday the 23rd at 17:00. The early Thursday performance is the most convenient if you want dinner afterward without a late night. Sunday afternoon is the choice if you're coming from outside Rome and want to head home in the evening.

Length

The theater lists a running time of 80 minutes, in one act, with no intermission. With the 21:00 performance you come out around 22:20, with Thursday's 19:30 just before 21:00, and with Sunday's 17:00 around 18:20.

Tickets

Tickets are sold from the show's page on the Ambra Jovinelli website, with the button leading to the authorized presale network, or at the theater box office on Via Guglielmo Pepe. Prices for the different sections are shown when you buy. For such a well-known title, on weekend nights, it's best to move early.

The address

Teatro Ambra Jovinelli, Via Guglielmo Pepe 43/47, 00185 Rome, in the Esquilino, a few steps from Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II.

What you'll see in Perfetti sconosciuti

Perfetti sconosciuti is a comedy about friendship, love and betrayal: during a dinner, a group of friends decides to put their phones on the table and share messages and calls, and everyone's secrets come out.

Three lives

The theater's presentation starts from a simple idea: each of us has three lives, a public one, a private one and a secret one. Once the secret one was protected in the archive of memory, while today it's kept in the phone's SIM card. The show asks what would happen if that tiny card started to talk.

The truth game

The mechanism is the film's. During a dinner the friends decide to play a truth game: all phones on the table, every message read aloud, every call on speaker. What starts as a joke becomes a series of revelations, and the guests find out that they are, to one another, perfect strangers.

The film and the stage

Genovese's film took place almost entirely around a table, in an apartment, over one evening: an already theatrical structure, with unity of time, place and action. The move to the stage, in our opinion, was almost inevitable. On stage you see the whole dinner, with no editing cuts: the audience becomes one more guest, seated at a table they can't get up from.

The team

The show is by Paolo Genovese. Sets are by Luigi Ferrigno, costumes by Grazia Materia, lighting by Fabrizio Lucci. It's produced by Nuovo Teatro, led by Marco Balsamo, in coproduction with Fondazione Teatro della Toscana and Lotus Production.

Paolo Genovese: from advertising to theater

Paolo Genovese was born in Rome on August 20, 1966: a director, screenwriter and writer, with Perfetti sconosciuti he made one of the most awarded and most remade Italian films ever, and with its stage adaptation in 2023 his first theater production.

Training and advertising

A graduate of the Giulio Cesare classical high school in Rome and of Sapienza in economics, Genovese started as a writer and director of commercials for the McCann Erickson agency in Milan, making campaigns for brands like Tim, McDonald's, Buitoni, Algida, Findus and Corriere della Sera.

With Luca Miniero

In 1998 he made the short film Incantesimo napoletano with Luca Miniero, nominated for a David di Donatello, which became a feature in 2002. With Miniero he also directed the series Nati ieri in 2006, Viaggio in Italia, una favola vera in 2007, and in 2008 another series for Canale 5.

Box office hits

On his own, in 2010 Genovese directed La banda dei Babbi Natale with Aldo, Giovanni e Giacomo, which grossed more than €20 million, then Immaturi in 2011, Immaturi, il viaggio and Una famiglia perfetta in 2012, Tutta colpa di Freud in 2014 and Sei mai stata sulla Luna? in 2015. In 2016 came Perfetti sconosciuti, and in 2017 The Place.

Writer and director

Genovese has written two novels for Einaudi, including Supereroi, and Tutta colpa di Freud for Mondadori. In 2018 he was a juror at the Venice Film Festival, and since 2016 he has been artistic director of Leone Film Group. 2023 was the year of his first stage production, Perfetti sconosciuti, and of the series I leoni di Sicilia.

Perfetti sconosciuti, the record-breaking film

Perfetti sconosciuti was released in theaters on February 11, 2016 and grossed more than €17 million overall, becoming the year's second-highest-grossing Italian film after Quo vado?.

Awards

In 2016 the film won the David di Donatello for best film and best screenplay, written by Paolo Genovese with Filippo Bologna, Paolo Costella, Paola Mammini and Rolando Ravello. The same screenplay won an award at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. It also won the Nastro d'argento and the Globo d'oro for best comedy, the Ciak d'oro for best film and the Premio Flaiano for direction.

Guinness World Records

Since July 15, 2019 Perfetti sconosciuti has been in Guinness World Records as the most remade film in cinema history: at the time there were 18. The count has grown in the years since, with adaptations in dozens of countries.

The stage versions

The first stage version was put on in Israel, at the Habima Theatre in Tel Aviv, in the 2018-2019 season, followed by others in Slovenia, Argentina and Uruguay. The Italian adaptation by Genovese dates from 2023, and in October 2024 an American off-Broadway adaptation followed, directed by Robert O'Hara.

The film of the decade

In December 2019 readers of Corriere della Sera, in a poll by the newspaper, voted Perfetti sconosciuti the best Italian film of the 2010s.

The cast: seven actors around a table

Perfetti sconosciuti at Ambra Jovinelli has seven performers: Dino Abbrescia, Alice Bertini, Paolo Briguglia, Paolo Calabresi, Massimo De Lorenzo, Cristina Pellegrino and Valeria Solarino. Five of them were in the company that launched the Italian adaptation in 2023.

Valeria Solarino

Born in Venezuela in 1978 to parents from Modica, raised between Sicily and Turin, Valeria Solarino trained at the Teatro Stabile di Torino school. On screen she has worked in Fame chimica, Che ne sarà di noi, La febbre with Fabio Volo and Roberto Andò's Viaggio segreto. She was nominated for the David di Donatello for best actress for Wilma Labate's Signorina Effe and won awards for Viola di mare. In 2023 she played Eva in the first stage version.

Paolo Calabresi

Born in Rome in 1964, Paolo Calabresi was admitted in 1987 to the Piccolo Teatro di Milano school run by Giorgio Strehler, with whom he later worked. The general public knows him as the electrician Augusto Biascica in the series Boris, and from the Smetto quando voglio trilogy. In 2023 he played Rocco.

Dino Abbrescia

Born in Bari in 1966, Dino Abbrescia worked in theater for a long time, mainly with Teatro dell'Elfo in Milan. On screen he was in LaCapaGira, in Gabriele Salvatores's 2003 film, and in Giovanni Veronesi's Manuale d'amore, and on TV in Camera Café and Il giudice Mastrangelo. In 2023 he played Lele.

Massimo De Lorenzo

Born in Reggio Calabria in 1968, Massimo De Lorenzo made his film debut in 1992 in Gianni Amelio's Il ladro di bambini and has worked in three Carlo Verdone films. From 2007 to 2010 he was in the cast of Boris, alongside Calabresi. In 2023 he played Peppe.

Alice Bertini, Paolo Briguglia, Cristina Pellegrino

Alice Bertini played Bianca in the 2023 version. Paolo Briguglia and Cristina Pellegrino join the company for this edition. The theater doesn't list who plays which role, which you discover in the hall.

A seasoned company

Five of the seven performers coming from the first edition is a concrete advantage: in a comedy made of lines crossing over a table, comic timing comes from the actors' familiarity with each other. The two newcomers bring different faces to the stage without changing the mechanism.

A curious fact about Perfetti sconosciuti by Paolo Genovese at Teatro Ambra Jovinelli, May 19 to 23, 2027

The most surprising curious fact is the Guinness record. An Italian film, shot almost entirely in one room, has held since 2019 the world record for the most remade film: 18 at the time of certification, many more in the years that followed. No Hollywood film, no European classic has been remade as many times. The reason lies in the simplicity of the idea: a dinner, some friends, some phones. It works in Rome as in Tokyo or New York, because a smartphone is the same everywhere.

The second curious fact is that, before the Italian version, Perfetti sconosciuti had already become theater abroad: the first staging was at the Habima Theatre in Tel Aviv, in the 2018-2019 season. Genovese brought his text to the stage only in 2023, seven years after the film, in his first theater production.

The third concerns the cast. Paolo Calabresi and Massimo De Lorenzo were colleagues on the set of Boris, the series that portrayed Italian television with fierce irony. In Perfetti sconosciuti they meet again at the same table, friends who discover they're strangers. And Dino Abbrescia and Massimo De Lorenzo already appeared at Ambra Jovinelli in January 2027 with La cosa giusta: in May they return to the same hall.

Teatro Ambra Jovinelli, from variety to comedy

Teatro Ambra Jovinelli opened on March 3, 1909, built by impresario Giuseppe Jovinelli from Caserta, who wanted a luxurious variety theater, on a par with the drama halls. It's the only Roman theater built in Art Nouveau style.

The Art Nouveau facade

The design was entrusted in 1907 to Ulderico Bencivenga, after contributions by Pietro Chiodelli and Giacomo Radiconcini. The result was a two-story facade with large openings, a crown of curved lines, stucco pilasters decorated with flowers and, in the center of the entablature, a shell with a human face. The horseshoe hall originally had about 1,000 seats, with fully electric lighting.

From variety to cinema

Before World War I Jovinelli was one of the capital's most important variety theaters. Then came competition from cinema and revue. In the 1950s the hall became a cinema and variety house under the name Ambra Jovinelli, and in the 1970s it was reduced to showing adult films.

The fire and the rebirth

On April 29, 1982 a fire destroyed the building. The theater stayed closed, was sold in 1990 and abandoned. In July 1996 a collective of young artists occupied it to draw attention to its fate, and in 1997 the Ministry placed the facade under protection. After restoration, on January 25, 2001, Ambra reopened as a comedy theater with Serena Dandini as artistic director.

The hall today

The restoration rebuilt its early 20th-century look and tripled the interior volume without touching the exterior: the hall was raised five meters, and beneath it the Piccolo Jovinelli, a bar and other spaces were created. The cast iron columns that once held the boxes now support the two galleries. Since December 26, 2010 the artistic director has been Fabrizia Pompilio.

Something nobody tells you about Perfetti sconosciuti by Paolo Genovese at Teatro Ambra Jovinelli, May 19 to 23, 2027

What the presentations don't say is that if you've seen the film you already know the plot, the twists and the ending, and it doesn't matter. The show doesn't live on surprise but on the mechanism: the moment a phone buzzes on the table and everyone turns, the silence before a message is read, the face of someone who realizes they're about to be found out. In the theater these moments last longer than in the film, because no editing shortens them, and you feel the tension in the hall.

The second thing concerns the audience. Perfetti sconosciuti is one of those shows where the audience reacts out loud: people laugh, comment, someone instinctively glances at their own phone. My advice, obvious but necessary, is to really turn it off: in a show about the secrets in our phones, a ring in the hall unintentionally becomes part of the comedy.

The third concerns the length. 80 minutes with no intermission is short for an evening at the theater, and lets you pair the show with an unhurried dinner before or after: with Thursday's 19:30 performance you're out before 21:00.

How to get to Teatro Ambra Jovinelli

Teatro Ambra Jovinelli is at Via Guglielmo Pepe 43, in the Esquilino, near Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II and Termini station. The easiest way there is Metro A, Vittorio Emanuele stop.

By metro

From the Vittorio Emanuele stop, in Piazza Vittorio, you reach Via Guglielmo Pepe on foot in a few minutes. Alternatively, get off at Termini, where lines A and B meet, and walk through the Esquilino: a quarter of an hour at an easy pace.

By train

If you're arriving on a regional train, you can get off at Roma Laziali station, next to Termini, the closest to the theater. If you're coming from outside Rome for the Sunday afternoon, it's the most convenient option.

By car

The Esquilino is a dense, busy neighborhood, and street parking in the evening is hard. If you drive, leave the car in a parking garage around Termini and continue on foot.

On foot from the center

From Santa Maria Maggiore to the theater it's just over 10 minutes on foot, heading down toward Piazza Vittorio: the right walk if you're staying between Monti and Termini.

My tip for Perfetti sconosciuti by Paolo Genovese at Teatro Ambra Jovinelli, May 19 to 23, 2027

My first tip is to choose Thursday at 19:30. With 80 minutes of show you're out before 21:00, just in time for dinner in the Esquilino or Monti, and dinner becomes the natural extension of the comedy: it's almost impossible to leave Perfetti sconosciuti without debating at the table what's hidden in your own phones.

My second tip is to go with friends or your partner, and be ready for a few sideways glances. The show is built to embarrass the audience as much as the characters, and the biggest fun is watching the reactions of the people next to you.

The third is about seats. The action takes place around a table, and the actors' expressions, the glance falling on a phone, the hand covering it, matter as much as the lines. The central orchestra rows give the best view. From the galleries you follow the stage well but lose some of the details.

Another well-known fact, yet one rarely mentioned

It's well known that Perfetti sconosciuti won the David di Donatello for best film in 2016. It's mentioned less often that its most international award went to the screenplay: at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, in April 2016, the script written by Paolo Genovese with Filippo Bologna, Paolo Costella, Paola Mammini and Rolando Ravello won in the international competition. The film's worldwide success, with its remakes around the world, is first of all the success of a text.

That fact explains why the stage adaptation works. A screenplay built on tight dialogue, a single setting and a single evening is, in substance, already a stage play. Genovese didn't have to reinvent the story: he had to move it from one art to another, knowing that in the theater there are no close-ups and the tension has to reach the last row.

There's a second rarely mentioned fact. In the film the dinner coincided with a lunar eclipse, the moon darkening as the secrets came out: an image that on stage has to be reinvented with lighting, here designed by Fabrizio Lucci.

The Esquilino around Ambra Jovinelli

The Esquilino is the neighborhood between Termini, Santa Maria Maggiore and Porta Maggiore, with the late 19th-century buildings around Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II built after Italian Unification: one of Rome's most multiethnic neighborhoods.

Piazza Vittorio and the Alchemical Door

Piazza Vittorio is a large square surrounded by arcades. In the gardens at its center stands the Porta Alchemica, the Alchemical Door, with its enigmatic inscriptions: a small Roman mystery to discover before the show, which in May you can visit while the light is still high.

Nuovo Mercato Esquilino

A few steps away is the Nuovo Mercato Esquilino, with spices, vegetables and products from half the world. It's a daytime market: if you spend the day in the area, stop by in the morning.

Santa Maria Maggiore and Porta Maggiore

At the top of the hill is Santa Maria Maggiore, with the Esquiline obelisk behind the apse. To the east is Porta Maggiore, the great arch of the ancient aqueducts, which at night, lit up, shows its full bulk.

The right photo to take at Perfetti sconosciuti by Paolo Genovese at Teatro Ambra Jovinelli, May 19 to 23, 2027

The right photo is taken on Via Guglielmo Pepe, from the opposite sidewalk: the Art Nouveau facade of Ambra Jovinelli, with the shell and the human face in the center of the entablature, the flowered pilasters and the show's poster at the entrance. It's Rome's only Art Nouveau theater, and in May, around 20:00, the sunset light lights up the stucco.

The second photo has an ironic flavor. For a show about the secrets in our phones, a shot of your phones lying side by side on the bar table before going in is the perfect souvenir: the film's dinner, in miniature. Inside the hall, during the show, no photos or video.

The third is on the way out, in Piazza Vittorio, with the lit-up arcades and the gardens in the center: late 19th-century Rome by night, a few steps from the theater.

Some important events that happened here in history

The history of Ambra Jovinelli reads in dates, from the variety of 1909 to today's comedy.

1909 and 1910, Viviani and Petrolini

On March 3, 1909 the theater opened with Raffaele Viviani and his sister Luisella, brought in by Giuseppe Jovinelli. In 1910 Ettore Petrolini signed the contract with Jovinelli that launched him. The documents of that relationship are kept in the Petrolini collection of the Biblioteca e Museo teatrale del Burcardo.

1919-1921, Totò

Between 1919 and 1921 Totò made his debut and became the darling of the Ambra audience, presenting himself as an impersonator of Gustavo De Marco.

From the 1940s to the 1970s

In the 1940s and 1950s the hall also hosted boxing matches, with the ring set up in the theater. In the 1950s it became a cinema and variety house under its new name, and in the 1970s an adult cinema.

1982-2001, destruction and rebirth

On April 29, 1982, the fire. In July 1996 the occupation by young artists, in 1997 the Ministry's protection of the facade, and on January 25, 2001 the reopening as a comedy theater with Serena Dandini. On December 26, 2010 Fabrizia Pompilio's management began.

Who has passed through Perfetti sconosciuti by Paolo Genovese at Teatro Ambra Jovinelli, May 19 to 23, 2027

The Ambra Jovinelli stage has seen more than a century of Italian comedy. In the Jovinelli family years there were Raffaele Viviani, Ettore Petrolini, Gustavo De Marco and Totò, and then Nino Taranto, Claudio Villa, Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia, Rita Pavone, Alberto Sordi and Lino Banfi.

After the 2001 reopening came Ascanio Celestini, Marco Paolini, Lillo e Greg, Valerio Mastandrea, Sabina and Corrado Guzzanti, Vincenzo Salemme, Silvio Orlando and Paolo Rossi. Under Fabrizia Pompilio, since 2010, the program has hosted Stefano Accorsi, Massimo Ranieri, Virginia Raffaele, Pierfrancesco Favino, Paola Cortellesi, Elio Germano and the works of Mattia Torre.

The series Boris returns this season: Paolo Calabresi and Massimo De Lorenzo, two faces of the series, are in the cast of Perfetti sconosciuti. And Valerio Mastandrea, who has already appeared at Ambra, was one of the stars of Genovese's film. In the same 2026-2027 season Via Guglielmo Pepe has hosted, among others, Luca Bizzarri, Le nostre donne and Incendi with Filippo Dini.

Accessibility and practical information

After the restoration the Ambra Jovinelli hall was raised five meters above street level: if you have accessibility needs, contact the theater before buying for directions on routes and suitable seats.

Arriving on time

Arrive a quarter of an hour early: the Ambra foyer fills quickly, and in a show with no intermission coming in late disturbs more than elsewhere.

La Buvette

The theater has its own refreshment area, La Buvette, mentioned on the official website: handy for an aperitivo before the show without leaving the entrance.

Perfetti sconosciuti with teens

Perfetti sconosciuti is an adult comedy: it's about couples, betrayals and secrets, and the language follows the characters.

With teenagers

For high school students used to the theater it can be a surprising show: the theme of phones and the secret life they hold concerns them closely, and a discussion after the show is guaranteed.

With children

It's not the right show for children, because of the themes and the language. The theater doesn't list age limits. If in doubt, ask the box office.

Where to eat before or after the show

The Esquilino is the right neighborhood if you want Chinese, Indian, Bangladeshi, Ethiopian or Middle Eastern food at low prices: the streets around Piazza Vittorio are full of such places, many open late.

Roman cooking

For a classic trattoria, head up toward Santa Maria Maggiore or move to the Monti neighborhood, a quarter of an hour on foot, where osterias and trattorias stay open after 22:00.

With the show times

With the 21:00 performances, have an aperitivo around 19:00 and dinner afterward, since you come out around 22:20. With Thursday at 19:30, eat when you come out, unhurried. With Sunday at 17:00, you can have a late lunch in Monti and dinner back home.

Frequently asked questions about Perfetti sconosciuti on stage

When is Perfetti sconosciuti on at Ambra Jovinelli?

Perfetti sconosciuti is on at Teatro Ambra Jovinelli in Rome from May 19 to 23, 2027: Wednesday the 19th at 21:00, Thursday the 20th at 19:30, Friday the 21st and Saturday the 22nd at 21:00, and Sunday the 23rd at 17:00.

How long is the show?

Perfetti sconosciuti on stage runs 80 minutes, in one act, with no intermission, according to Teatro Ambra Jovinelli. With the 21:00 performance you come out around 22:20.

Who is in Perfetti sconosciuti on stage?

The stage version of Perfetti sconosciuti at Ambra Jovinelli stars Dino Abbrescia, Alice Bertini, Paolo Briguglia, Paolo Calabresi, Massimo De Lorenzo, Cristina Pellegrino and Valeria Solarino. The show is by Paolo Genovese.

Is it the same as the film?

Perfetti sconosciuti on stage is the adaptation Paolo Genovese made from his 2016 film, keeping its situation: a dinner among friends and the game of phones on the table. It's Genovese's first stage production, which premiered in 2023.

Where is Teatro Ambra Jovinelli?

Teatro Ambra Jovinelli is at Via Guglielmo Pepe 43, in the Esquilino, near Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II. The handiest stop is Vittorio Emanuele on Metro A. From Termini it's about 15 minutes on foot.

How do you buy tickets?

Tickets for Perfetti sconosciuti are sold on the Teatro Ambra Jovinelli website, which links to the authorized presale network, or at the theater box office on Via Guglielmo Pepe. Prices for each section are shown when you buy.

Why is Perfetti sconosciuti in Guinness World Records?

Perfetti sconosciuti has been in Guinness World Records since 2019 as the most remade film in cinema history: 18 at the time of certification, many more in the years since.

Final tip on Perfetti sconosciuti

My tip is to book early, choose Thursday at 19:30 or Sunday at 17:00, and go with the people you usually have dinner with: the table game works best when the audience recognizes itself. Perfetti sconosciuti brings to Ambra Jovinelli a story the whole world has remade, in its author's version and with a company that knows it by heart. In our opinion, 80 minutes are enough to leave the theater looking at your own phone with a certain suspicion.

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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