Festival della Sapienza

A festival that brings research to the stage

The Festival della Sapienza was launched in 2025 as a cultural project by Sapienza University of Rome, Europe's largest university. Since its debut, it has established itself as one of the most original highlights of the capital's cultural autumn. The core concept is simple yet ambitious: using theatre and performing arts as a language to communicate scientific and humanistic research, while opening the university to the city. The festival takes place in the Città Universitaria, the iconic rationalist complex designed by Marcello Piacentini in the 1930s, located between the San Lorenzo district and Termini station in Rome (Province of Rome, Lazio).

The theme of dignity

From the very beginning, the festival has chosen a powerful guiding thread: dignity, explored through a different lens each year. In 2025, the title was The Restless Dignity: dignity understood not as an abstract principle, but as a concrete existential condition, constantly threatened by inequality, violence, and exclusion. In 2026, the reflection shifts perspective with Giving Body to Dignity: dignity becomes a tangible value, a horizon to be shaped with determination, courage, and shared responsibility.

Major challenges addressed

Through performances, workshops, and debates, the festival explores some of the most urgent issues of our time, as studied within the university's departments:

• Health, well-being, and quality of life, with a focus on vulnerable groups
• Environmental and climate sustainability
• Social justice and the fight against inequality
• Accessibility to new technologies and inclusive development

How the program is created

The program is not top-down: each year, the university issues a public call for theatre companies, professional organizations, and artists to propose live performances or workshops aligned with the festival's themes. For the 2026 edition, applications were accepted from February 23rd to April 3rd, 2026. A key requirement is that projects must foster dialogue, debate, or engagement with civil society, the academic community, or specific social contexts. This participatory mechanism ensures a diverse lineup every year, alternating narrative theatre, itinerant performances across the campus, social theatre, and public workshops.

The inaugural edition: a successful test run

The first edition, held from September 24th to 26th, 2025, featured three days packed with events at the Nuovo Teatro Ateneo and other locations within the University City, with titles such as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Teatro Potlach, On the Trail of Majorana, Cursed Women, Silent Screams, The Monsoon, Every Stupid Thing, and The Exception and the Rule. The format successfully brought together students, professors, researchers, and the general public in the same space, with free admission.

Why it's worth attending

The Festival della Sapienza offers a rare experience: witnessing professional-quality performances inside a university campus, set within remarkable architecture, with the chance to meet those who conduct research every day. It is an event that speaks to students and beyond: those living in or visiting Rome in October will find an opportunity to see the University City from the inside, just a stone's throw from San Lorenzo, one of the capital's most vibrant districts for bars, bookstores, and nightlife.