Italophonia: Language Beyond Borders
From 13 to 19 October 2025, Lebanon will join the 25th edition of the Italian Language Week in the World, this year dedicated to the theme “Italophonia: Language Beyond Borders”.
This global initiative takes place in a year of particular institutional significance, marked by the Fifth General Assembly of the Italian Language and by the first International Conference on Italophonia (19th Nov. 2025), aimed at establishing a global community united by the Italian language.
In Beirut, the programme highlights the encounter between Italian literary and theatrical heritage and the creativity of the Lebanese cultural scene, embodying the very spirit of Italophonia: a language that transcends geographical boundaries and thrives through translation, reinterpretation and shared cultural belonging.
The flagship event will be “New Italian Stage in the World”: six plays by a new generation of Italian playwrights, translated into Lebanese Arabic and brought to life by some of the country’s most acclaimed directors and actors. An eloquent example of how Italian can inspire new artistic languages and serve as a bridge between cultures.
Literature plays a central role: from The Anniversary by Andrea Bajani, read by Lebanese intellectuals, to the centenary tribute to Andrea Camilleri with The Shape of Water, and the revisiting of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Ragazzi di vita — works that present Italian as a language of memory, identity and social engagement.
Younger audiences will be welcomed into the imaginative world of the Pimpa, translated into Arabic and staged in six primary schools across Lebanon. Also presented in Arabic is OPS!, the imaginative and scientific work of Telmo Pievani and Andrea Valente, demonstrating Italian’s vocation as a language of science, knowledge and discovery.
Through theatre, literature, childhood and science, Italian Language Week in Beirut celebrates Italian as a language of peace, dialogue and friendship, a living instrument of culture, creativity and future.