TROPPO BELLA PER ESSERE VERA

di Massimiano Bucchi · con Maria Vittoria Barrella · regia di Maura Pettorruso
Produzione Pequod Compagnia

“I don’t mean to boast, but I am one of the greatest scientists in the world.” That is how Sara introduces herself, and her credentials back her up: MIT, CERN, Caltech, the Sorbonne; three degrees, two doctorates, papers in Nature and Science, hundreds of international patents and an invention set to change the lives of millions. Yet she carries one “flaw” that no CV seems able to offset: she is a beautiful woman, and a former fashion model.

That paradox is the starting point of Troppo bella per essere vera, a monologue written by sociologist of science Massimiano Bucchi, performed by Maria Vittoria Barrella and directed by Maura Pettorruso. Drawing on real events, the play brings into focus the mechanisms — often quiet, often unintended — that hold back women’s careers in research: competence questioned before it is ever assessed, appearance arriving ahead of merit, credibility renegotiated from scratch every single time.

Amid obstacles, mistrust, bungling assistants and sudden plot twists, the text takes on prejudice with the sharp irony that runs through Bucchi’s writing: not a polemic, but a story that makes you laugh and, a moment later, recognise something uncomfortably familiar. The subject concerns the world of science — but by no means only that.

NanoInnovation was founded as a meeting place for research, industry and society. Bringing theatre into the cloister of San Pietro in Vincoli is the most direct way to carry that conversation beyond the lecture halls and the technical sessions, and to ask ourselves who we find credible, and why.