Within the royal palace of Troezen, Phaedra struggles with a passion that is as irresistible as it is impossible; she is in love with her stepson Hippolytus, born during the previous marriage of her husband Theseus. Her affections spurned, she takes revenge by accusing the young man of trying to rape her. The return of Theseus leads to unavoidable ruin, which sets in motion a series of events that end in tragedy. 
After having taken on the heroines of Greek tragedy – Antigone, Iphigenia and Medea – Federico Tiezzi returns to ancient mythology, this time presented through the precious alexandrine verse of Jean Racine: «It is as though, in Phèdre, Racine sought to evoke what remains of the classical era, reconstructing it through vestiges, moments, fragments while at the same time never claiming its impossibility, nor celebrating its end. The result is a kind of hallucinated and internal requiem, one that is mental and alienating, full of suffering and absence.»