As in an exclusive lounge. That’s the way Edoardo Brenci, art director of the smallest theater in the world, welcomes the guests before the start of the show.
As in his living room , the host greets the guests, watching the faces and recognizing the regulars from new friends, mostly tourists, curious to know the history and to see and experience this little gem nestled in the green Umbrian countryside.
Monte Castello Vibio, a small town that has preserved its medieval shape, holds within itself a place so special and unique. But is it really the smallest theater in the world? The challenge is open, Edoardo tells me, with the theater of Vetriano near Lucca, which is registered to Guinness, but in this case it is not a space created as a theater, but a nineteenth century building, conceived for other use, then converted to a meeting place in which it was made a theater.
First of all, a brief note on the history of Concordia Theatre (then called “establishment”). It was founded by 9 upper-class families of Monte Castello in the early 1800s as a private place, which could be accessed only by invitation of the owners.
Only in the 80s of the last century it was expropriated by the City to the heirs, to be eligible for EU funds to restore it. It should be emphasized that the region of Umbria, then, was the first to use those funds for the recovery of historic theaters, and 18 of them were restored.
After about 40 years of total neglect, to be precise since 1951, in 1993 the theater came back to life, that was the realization of the d
