To be loved or not to be loved?

Venice, July 2026 

This is the dilemma that has always troubled younger generations, but in a present increasingly marked by anxiety, isolation and uncertainty, it risks turning into genuine psychological distress. Born from a European project bringing together Italy, Germany and Romania, the international production Brain Storm. Tempest in the Mind draws on Shakespeare and theatre to address the storm raging inside today’s youth.

Following a series of artistic workshops involving young people aged 18 to 25 across the three countries, the production, created by Teatro Stabile del Veneto – Teatro Nazionale, fringe ensemble and Teatrul Național Marin Sorescu din Craiova, with a text by Marta Dalla Via and directed by Frank Heuel, will have its world premiere on 12 September at Teatro Camploy in Verona as part of the Estate Teatrale Veronese festival.

On stage, alongside the choir composed of participants from the Padua workshop, will be Chiara Bartolucci, Alessandro Berardi, Stefano Callovi, Filippo Franco, Giulia Lenzi and Karina Stanciu, together with professional actors Laura Maria Babaian and Mihnea Presură, as well as DJ Sofi Rex, who will perform live on stage. Following its Verona premiere, the production will be presented at the Theater im Ballsaal in Bonn, Germany, on 18 and 19 September, at the National Theatre of Craiova in Romania on 26 September, and will then return to Italy at Teatro Maddalene in Padua from 4 to 7 February 2027, featuring the participants of the workshops held in each country.

"Shakespeare’s theatre thrives on hatred, great conflicts, extreme passions, blood and power, and we have no interest in taming it," write Frank Heuel and Marta Dalla Via in their production notes. "If you are looking for comfort, grab a blanket, a hot drink and keep scrolling. But if you want to find a safe place to rehearse for a better life, theatre is perfect, Shakespeare is perfect."

Brain Storm. Tempest in the Mind is part of STORM – Shakespearean Theatre for Outlasting Resilience in Mental Health, a project combining theatre and psychological well-being, co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme and developed by Teatro Stabile del Veneto (IT), Teatrul Național Marin Sorescu din Craiova (RO), fringe ensemble (DE) and Fondazione Fitzcarraldo (IT), with the Department of General Psychology of the University of Padua (IT) as an associated partner.

Between September 2025 and March 2026, theatre—and Shakespearean imagery in particular—served as a tool to explore emotions, relationships and identity. Throughout the workshops, young participants contributed directly to the creative process, and some became part of the final production itself, maintaining a living connection between workshop and stage and transforming real experiences into theatrical language. Through body, voice and shared interaction, participants developed listening skills and self-awareness in a dynamic interplay between personal experience and imagination, offering a contemporary perspective on the relationship between youth, emotions and society.

In line with the sustainability policies of Teatro Stabile del Veneto, from the earliest stages of the project all partners committed to adopting sustainable practices, including the implementation of a monitoring and reporting framework designed to guide and assess the environmental and social impacts of the project’s activities.

Word Premiere

12 September 2026 – 9.00 p.m.
TEATRO CAMPLOY – VERONA

BRAIN STORM. Tempest in the Mind

Text by Marta Dalla Via
Directed by Frank Heuel
With Laura Maria Babaian and Mihnea Presură

And with the choir composed of participants from the Padua workshop:
Chiara Bartolucci, Alessandro Berardi, Stefano Callovi, Filippo Franco, Giulia Lenzi, Karina Stanciu

Live DJ Set: Sofi Rex
Set and Costume Design: Annika Ley
Lighting Design: Frank Heuel
Assistant Director: Lutz Ackermann

Produced by: Teatro Stabile del Veneto – Teatro Nazionale, fringe ensemble, Teatrul Național Marin Sorescu din Craiova
Special thanks to: Laurențiu Tudor

The performance is part of STORM – Shakespearean Theatre for Outlasting Resilience in Mental Health, co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme and developed by Teatro Stabile del Veneto (IT), Teatrul Național Marin Sorescu din Craiova (RO), fringe ensemble (DE) and Fondazione Fitzcarraldo (IT), with the Department of General Psychology of the University of Padua (IT) as an associated partner.

Funded by the European Union. The views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Creative Europe Programme. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

Director’s Notes

There was a time when a kiss was enough.
A breath. A fingertip touch.

Everything would pass. Pain, fear, tears.
Then childhood ended without telling us, and somehow those things were no longer enough.

But the pain remained.

A kind of adult bruise—diffuse, invisible, ever-changing.

Who are you?

A generation.

Silent, loud, lost.

A Generation X, Y, Z… a slanted generation layered with the achievements and mistakes of previous episodes.

Who are you?

We are two young performers stepping forward to speak.

Who are you?

We are a small flock of people under twenty-five searching for our place.

Who are you?

We are a multitude resisting the multiplication of loneliness.

Who are you?

Call us Generation W, as in William, the Bard, and raise the curtain.

Shakespeare’s theatre feeds on hatred, great conflicts, extreme loves, blood and power, and we have no interest in taming it. If you need comfort, grab a blanket, a warm drink and keep scrolling. But if you want to find a safe place in which to rehearse for a better life, theatre is perfect, Shakespeare is perfect.

Because the stage is a safe place where we die pretend deaths while speaking seriously about life—about the mysterious lives of future adults as they have told them to us: a storm in the mind of poetry, insomnia, comedy and anxiety.

Ripeness is all.

And we feel ready to never be fully ready, and to keep trying.

Offering this work to you as we would offer a caress.

“…and let this kiss repair those violent harms…”

Frank Heuel & Marta Dalla Via