Following studies at the Accademia d'Arte Drammatica and the University ‘L’Orientale’ in Naples, Valentina Carbonara went on to work on a variety of projects as a director, actress and playwright. In 2013 she created the duo Espositi with the actor Ciro Esposito.
Valentina Carbonara and Ciro Esposito applied for a residency at the Maison Maria Casarès in order to work together on their project ‘Di questa vergognosa tenerezza’. Her role was as director and he played the principal character, Caligula. The project was inspired by Albert Camus’ famous play of the same name. During the residency, the pair worked on a critical and comparative study of the different versions of the work to bring their own project to life. ‘Di questa vergognosa tenerezza’ was conceived as a tragedy for a single actor, putting on stage all the different versions of the text written by Camus between 1939 and 1958 and paying particular attention to the lines which were removed from the final version of 1958.
Wanting to integrate sections of French into her text, Valentina Carbonara intends to travel to France to give the work an appropriate linguistic and cultural context.