The National Theater Festival

The 34th edition of the National Theatre Festival, hosted by theatres and various non-conventional spaces in Bucharest, was a true marathon of theatrical performances and many other cultural events

Corina Sabău, 09.11.2024, 11:41

The 34th edition of the National Theatre Festival, hosted by theatres and various non-conventional spaces in Bucharest, turned into a true marathon of performances and many other cultural events. The theme of this edition was “Dramaturgies of the Possible” and was curated by Mihaela Michailov, Călin Ciobotari and Ionuț Sociu. The 31 Romanian performances selected for the festival – some of the most representative Romanian contemporary theatrical creations – were joined by related events, such as three performative and visual installations, 12 independent theater performances, ten educational performances, five conferences and debates, professional workshops, modules dedicated to established artists, book launches, radio theatre performances, but also a rich partner event – the Bucharest Scenography Biennale.

At the invitation of the National Theatre Festival and UNITER – the Romanian Theatre Union -, the Austrian Cultural Forum and its partners offered a complex program offline and online, coming with new approaches to the theme of the 34th edition of the National Theatre Festival. Andrei Popov, deputy director of the Austrian Cultural Forum, tells us what the exhibition “Only the violins remained – Alma and Arnold Rosé”, the extended presentation of the development of the VR HUMAN VIOLINS PRELUDE project, written and directed by Ioana Mischie, the performance UNION PLACE – A SHORT TRILOGY, the performance HOLY HYDRA @TIMIȘOARA and the two debates about performative projects have in common.

“The contribution of the Austrian Cultural Forum to the National Theatre Festival has grown with each edition and this year we have an extremely complex program. All these productions that I have proposed are related to a contemporary, innovative and highly socially involved way of doing performing arts, performance or theatre, and last but not least, virtual reality, because virtual reality is one of the ways in which we approached the performing arts. Always, in our collaboration with the National Theatre Festival, we take into account first of all the theme chosen by the curators of the festival. This year we set out to respond to that theme, Dramaturgies of the possible, proposed by the three curators – Mihaela Michailov, Călin Ciobotari and Ionuț Sociu.
What interested us the most was the openness to interdisciplinarity, but also the way in which dramaturgy becomes a decisive element of the show. In addition, we wanted to highlight the existing dialogue between Romanian and Austrian artists in the field of performing arts, a field in which there is very, very much collaboration. It was our desire to show publicly, given the visibility of the festival, how much creativity there is and how much things have evolved and continue to evolve in this field of theatre and performing arts in the dialogue between Austria and Romania.”

Artist Ioana Mischie’s project ”Human Violins: Prelude (Multi-Users Version)”, presented as part of the National Theatre festival had its world premiere in 2024 at Cannes Festival’s Immersive Competition, dedicated to virtual reality projects and as an absolute first introduced in the history of the event. ”Human Violins: Prelude (Multi-Users Version)” is an extended Virtual Reality experience, inspired from a true story, which invites us to reflect on the way we can preserve the most creative of the human legacies across the generations. Spectators watch the fictitious story of Alma, a lover of the violin, being offered the chance to play and prolong the legacy of her music.

Ioana Mischie: “Our project represented the first Romania-France co-production in the field of VR and we hope this participation in Cannes will also represent and open invitation extended to cultural decision-makers to invest in the field. It is an absolutely wonderful domain that can become a country brand, as in Romania we have very, very talented artists, a very advanced technological community and a very advanced technological infrastructure. Accordingly, we can excel in this domain if we invest appropriately. We’ve been delighted to find out this form of art is recognized and celebrated and to know, in turn, new possible collaborators in this field. Therefore, we hope for the good news to continue and for that to be just the beginning. Yet this beginning comes after 12 years in this field, that is why we hope to use this experience and develop it henceforth”.

The National Theatre Festival have also proposed to the public the Reading-Performances, which capitalized on varied dramaturgical formula, in accordance with the changes of today’s world, through the debate of texts from Germany, Spain, Portugal and Romania.