FITS 2023

The 30th edition of Sibiu International Theatre Festival is underway

Bogdan Matei, 26.06.2023, 13:50

The city of Sibiu in central Romania is once again the capital city of European theatre, to use an already conventional phrase.

The Sibiu International Theatre Festival (FITS) hosted by the city every year is widely acknowledged as the largest performing arts event in Romania, designed as a multifunctional body and a creative platform for presenting new drama expression techniques.

Every year, the programme is exceptionally rich: the most representative productions by major Romanian companies, critically praised international plays, daily street performances in the citys squares and in the fortified churches and medieval citadels around Sibiu.

According to critics, FITS was the event that secured Sibiu the title of European Capital of Culture in 2007, the year when Romania was admitted into the EU. Thanks to the festivals performance exchange section, the citys „Radu Stanca” Theatre took part in some of the most important drama festivals in the world, including Edinburgh, Avignon, Naples, Brussels, Seoul, Tokyo, Porto and Frankfurt.

Talking about the founder and president of the festival, the actor Constantin Chiriac, the culture minister Raluca Turcan said he was „a true ambassador of Romanian culture; the Sibiu International Theatre Festival is at present one of the most relevant theatre festivals in the world, and Sibiu, thanks to the festival, is one of the most attractive European cities that manage to grow through culture.” Constantin Chiriac is in fact the first Romanian to receive an excellence award from the Culture Ministry, at the initiative of the former minister Lucian Romaşcanu.

This edition of FITS, which started on Friday, is the 30th in Romanias 33-year post-communist history. Until 2 July, over 800 events will take place in around 80 venues, bringing together some 5,000 artists and guests from 75 countries. This year, the theme chosen for the festival is „Miracle”.

According to the media, one of the most spectacular performances was called „The Miracle of the Street,” with hundreds of viewers of all ages in attendance. In spite of the 31 degrees Celsius reported on Friday after noon in Sibiu, the Italian artists managed to transport the public into an entirely different place.

One of the most touching moments in Sundays programme, the media also report, was the one devoted to the actor Mihai Mălaimare, the author and coordinator of a project called „Heritage”, devoted to the art of living statues. Taking part in the project are students with arts universities in Chişinău, Moldova, Constanţa, Craiova, Iaşi, Sibiu, Târgu Mureş and Timişoara. (AMP)