34th edition of Romania’s National Theatre Festival highlights dramaturgy of performance

The 34th edition of the National Theatre Festival, taking place from October 18 to 27, is set to continue the shift from selection to curatorship, which has already been practiced in previous years. As a result, plays that will be shown were selected following certain criteria, foremost of which is the dramaturgy of the performance.

The National Theatre Festival's curatorial team, consisting of Mihaela Michailov, Călin Ciobotari, and Ionuț Sociu, has watched over 250 performances from Romania, the Republic of Moldova, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, France, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Portugal, and Serbia. In the end, they decided on a set of plays that would be featured at the festival, the organizers said.

The concept of this edition, centered on the "dramaturgy of possibility," provided one of the major criteria for evaluating the viewed performances.

One criterion was the dramaturgy of performance.

“We tried to observe how the construction privileges and valorizes a consistent dramaturgical background, integrating and highlighting it within a unified aesthetic. We were receptive to provocative, relevant dramaturgical formulas, whether through theme or construction methods, and tried to reflect the diversity of this essential layer of the performance: dramaturgy,” the curatorial team said.

The purpose of the selection is to offer festival audiences new experiences within an innovative paradigm while remaining inside a familiar relationship with classic texts. The curators of the festival also looked for aesthetics that are well-rounded and that reinforce the personality of the performance. In this respect, the recognizable visual, sensory, and conceptual signature within a play weighed heavily.

Finally, in the 2024 edition of the festival, the number of performances produced in Bucharest theatres does not exceed one-third of the total number.

“We maintained a regional representation criterion, trying to highlight geographical-theatrical diversities,” the curatorial team explained.

Further details about the event are available here.

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