In 2026 POLIS Teatro Festival inaugurates a collaboration with the Estonian Theatre Agency, entrusting texts translated by the Agency to a local theatre company to create a mise en espace, which is presented as a national premiere at POLIS.

Something real explores the loneliness of modern people and their longing for closeness in a world where virtual communication and simulated reality have replaced genuine connection. The story highlights the fragility of identity, various forms of dependency (on the internet and on other people), and the way one’s search for authenticity often leads to manipulation, deception, and confrontation with one’s darker side. The play sharply reflects the pain of our time – the need for something real amid artificiality and superficiality.

written by Martin Algus
translation Daniele Monticelli
featuring Lorenzo Carpinelli and Alessandro Renda
directed by Iacopo Gardelli
production Studio Doiz
commissioned by POLIS Teatro Festival

duration 90′


Martin Algus (b. 1973) is the most awarded Estonian playwright, having won three top prizes at New Drama Competitions. He gained international recognition in 2011 when his play Contact won the New Baltic Drama competition and premiered in Finland. Algus works as a freelance actor, playwright, screenwriter, producer, and translator. He has translated over 25 plays and received the Estonian Theatre Union’s prize for translation. His debut works, Thirst and You Are!, won both prizes in the 2007 New Drama Competition. His texts often explore the limits of relationships, identity, and self-destruction with a mix of dark humour and raw honesty, placing ordinary people in situations that reveal emotional and social fragility.

Studio Doizwas founded in Ravenna in 2020 by four founders with different backgrounds. The theatrical core of the group consists of Iacopo Gardelli, journalist, writer and playwright, and Lorenzo Carpinelli, actor, joined by Giacomo Bertoni, musician, and Lorenzo Basurto, organiser. From the very beginning, the association’s intent has been to hybridise languages and operate in various fields of cultural agitation in an independent and innovative way: from theatre to visual arts, from radio drama to podcasting. Among the theatrical productions by Studio Doiz, we mention the recent Gramsci gay (2022) and Ombrelloni (2025). Together with Lato Oscuro della Costa, Studio Doiz has curated a series of podcast interviews called Istantanee, available on YouTube. Since 2022, Studio Doiz has been organising and curating Manualetto, a cultural festival created in collaboration with the architecture studio DENARA, which uses theatre and music to bring life to abandoned places in the city of Ravenna. 

Alessandro Renda is an actor, director and filmmaker. Since 1998, he has been a member of Teatro delle Albe in Ravenna, with whom he has taken part in numerous productions, from I Polacchi to L’isola di Alcina, from Salmagundi to Stranieri, right up to Cantiere Dante. For over 15 years, he has performed in Marco Martinelli’s Rumore di acque, touring across Europe and the United States, collaborating with musicians such as the Fratelli Mancuso and Guy Klucevsek. He has recently taken part in the international projects A Cosmic Fairy Tale a Day Keeps the Doctor Away and HERETHEREWHERE; in 2023 he directed NON SIAMO NIENTE SAREMO TUTTO for Zona K. Coming in 2024 is NEPHESH | Proteggere l’ombra, a sound-based drama written with Tahar Lamri. Since 2001, he has been a guide at the Albe non-school, with experience in Italy and abroad, whilst since 2003 he has been producing videos for theatre and documentaries presented at various festivals.