In September 1599, in Rome, Beatrice Cenci, a young noblewoman from one of the most influential families of the period was executed for parricide; her crime was having killed her father in defence against repeated cases of abuse. The execution, which took place before a huge crowd, which included Caravaggio and Artemisia Gentileschi, deeply stirred public opinion in Rome. The image of the decapitation was burned into their memory; a steep slash into the flesh that was destined to re-emerge in their work. 
The trial divided the city: «is the desire to escape from injustice a crime or a form of justice?» was the question in the minds of many. A victim of oppression and then of the law, Beatrice Cenci became a tragic symbol of exposed and defenceless vulnerability. Hers is a story of power crushing the weakest, symbolic of a system that offers punishment instead of justice; it is the sacrifice of an innocent life, a person who, over the decades, has become a legend, inspiring many rewritings and interpretations.
The Piccola Compagnia della Magnolia, through the works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Antonin Artaud and Stendhal, and drawing inspiration from Dumas, Mary Shelley, Neige Sinno and Virginie Despentes, stages a new interpretation of the story; a protest against the dominant patriarchy and the personal dimension of injustice, which inevitably reflects on society as a whole.