Agorà - Theatre and Music at the Roots

A widespread agora between Rome and Lazio

Agorà - Theatre and Music at the Roots is not a festival confined to a single square: it is a traveling event that, every year between late August and November, crosses the Municipality of Rome and a dozen small towns in the Lazio Region. The idea is simple yet radical: to bring live performance where it usually doesn't reach, namely to the peripheral neighborhoods of the capital and the inland villages, restoring to the square — the agora, indeed — its original function as a meeting place.

The event is conceived and produced by the association Il NaufragarMèDolce and is curated by the artistic direction of Chiara Casarico. Born as a small neighborhood festival, it has grown over the years to exceed thirty appointments per edition, with a stable structure consisting of evening shows, morning workshops, and afternoon urban interventions.

The Roman stages: Casal de' Pazzi and Ostia

In Rome, the festival has two recognizable homes. The first is the Casal de' Pazzi Museum, in the north-east quadrant of the city (Municipality IV): a museum-housed paleontological site that becomes a stage for a few evenings, with the audience sitting next to a hundred-thousand-year-old river deposit. The second is the Teatro del Lido in Ostia, a cultural stronghold of the Roman coast and a long-time reference point for the festival, where the most structured performances and training projects with local high schools are concentrated.

The villages of Lazio

Outside Rome, Agorà touches small towns often far from the major circuits: recent editions have involved Formello, Cervara di Roma, Percile, Palombara Sabina, Vetralla (Viterbo), Montopoli di Sabina and Collevecchio (Rieti), Ripi (Frosinone), and Fondi (Latina). Municipal theatres, gardens, senior centers, courtyards, and parish spaces become halls from time to time: it is a geography that changes every year and is an integral part of the artistic project.

What to see

The programming is deliberately multidisciplinary and alternates very different registers:

• Contemporary theatre and auteur dramaturgy, with national premieres and new productions;
• Folk and singer-songwriter music, from Mediterranean repertoire to jazz contaminations;
• Contemporary circus and clowning, often on civil themes such as gender-based violence;
• Shows for children and families, with narratives drawn from children's literature;
• Participatory workshops and urban theatrical interventions with free admission.

Artists who have participated in the festival include names such as Saverio La Ruina, Maria Moramarco, the group Radicanto, Rita Superbi, Riccardo Massai, and Antonella Caldarella, alongside companies from all over Italy.

A declared social vocation

Agorà does not hide its approach: inclusion, hospitality, and dialogue are recurring words in the festival's presentations, and they translate into concrete choices — the free nature of most events, workshops open to residents, and projects with schools. The festival is supported by the Lazio Region as part of its live performance initiatives and has received contributions over the years from the Otto per Mille of the Waldensian Church, in addition to recognition from Roma Capitale for live performances outside the City Center.

Why it's worth the trip

Those looking for a major blockbuster event will not find monumental stages here. Agorà is something else: a community-sized festival, where you might happen to see a contemporary circus show in a village garden or a Southern Italian folk music concert inside a Roman paleontological museum. For those visiting Lazio in the low season, it is also a non-touristy and very authentic way to get in touch with the villages of the provinces of Viterbo, Rieti, Frosinone, and Latina.