The festival comes to a close with an evening of stand-up comedy featuring three distinct regional voices (alongside other special guests). Hear the unique perspectives of comics from Uzbekistan, Slovenia, and Bulgaria as they share jokes rooted in their cultural experiences.
The history of Europe in the 20th century described with perspective, humor and caustic irony. This original dramatization is a devastating commentary on the last century, in which an important role was played by war, the invention of the bra and perforated toilet paper.
A workshop production of the classic absurdist Polish play about three shipwrecked men on a raft. The raft is an analogy for our society, which has suffered a kind of “shipwreck”: the familiar concepts no longer work in the face of major crises such as climate change, right-wing extremism, wars, natural disasters, and mass migration.
Inspired by the volatile lives of Zdena Salivarova and Josef Skvorecky—two exceptional novelists and translators—the play examines their creative work and hardships under communist Czechoslovakia, as well as their subsequent emigration to Toronto, Canada.
A monodrama inspired by the true story of Dmitry Bogrov, a Ukrainian-Jewish lawyer, double agent, and revolutionary who assassinated Russian Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin at the Kyiv Opera House in 1911.
In this theater workshop, twelve scenes are connected by a certain kind of extreme, exploring relationships, stereotypes, uncertainties, and tensions through language cut to the bone and silence that speaks.
Screening of short documentary episodes delving into creative practices, Jewish identities, and personal journeys of Polish artists. KulturDocs sheds light on contemporary Jewish art in Poland, challenges old stereotypes, and sparks crucial conversations about Jewish identity and cultural expression.
Musical solo performance driven by a journey through family, history, and self-discovery, featuring Kati who searches for freedom and understanding as she uncovers the truth about her family's past in post-war Hungary.
A series of newly commissioned short plays using Vaclav Havel’s character, Ferdinand Vanek, or his relatives and descendants, and placing them in modern scenarios, imaging them in the world of today.
Staged reading of a play examining the former Slovak President Tiso and his complicity with Hitler during World War II.
Staged reading of a Ukrainian play about a nonbinary soldier, Antonina, for whom the front line is a place of stark truths and haunting echoes.
Staged reading of a Czech play – a darkly satirical reimagining of Hamlet’s world, focusing particularly on sexual indiscretions and their political/familial repercussions.
Let us transport you to the world of a beloved marionette family of Mr Spejbl and his son Hurvinek, whose witty banter has delighted audiences worldwide for over a century. They will be joined by Hurvinek's best friend Manicka and the dog Zeryk.
An annual showcase of contemporary Central and Eastern European theater, honoring Vaclav Havel. Theater, puppetry, clown, music, opera on film, a livestream from Salzburg, and more.
Staged reading of a comic thriller that mixes wall street-style misdeeds with mafia-style consequences, based on the real Estonian banking scandal in which Russian oligarchs used Estonian banks to launder their money into the EU.
Excerpts from Czech plays that use Vaclav Havel's character, Vanek, originally created as a stand-in for himself (a dissident playwright) during the Communist era in the former Czechoslovakia. The character was then adapted by numerous other Czech dissident playwrights, such as Pavel Landovsky and Pavel Kohout.
Staged reading of a contemporary tragicomedy, a paraphrase of the biblical brothers Cain and Abel, which tells a story of love, friendship and the hatred of otherness fueled by the far-right National Socialists.
Staged reading of a contemporary play dealing with the current war in Ukraine. A story about a Ukrainian family on a farm and a Russian soldier who stumbles into their farm.
Lowlands is a haunting depiction of the moral decomposition of the terminal years of communism seen through the eyes of a child from the German minority of Romania. It is based on a text by the Nobel Prize winning writer Herta Muller.
A daughter’s relationship with her father is always special, but how does it change if the father is a famous dictator? How does it feel when Dad is a “monster”? Here Moscow Calling dynamites the idea of unique truth and proposes to the audience an intense theatrical-cinematic experience.
A puppetry workshop led by Marta Hermannova and company members of The Zlin Project centered on their process of creating The Zlin Project – a puppet production about the life of the city of Zlin in the era of Tomas Bata.
More than a decade ago, the right-wing extremist terrorist cell known as NSU came across the novel The Turner Diaries by American neo-Nazi William L. Pierce. This work served as a guide for other neo-Nazis world-wide. Playing Earl Turner combines documentary material with fictional literature and creates a disturbing scenario that fundamentally questions the common notion of lone perpetrators.
A thrilling and gut-wrenching play that charts the relationship between Carla and her young charge, Helver. Helver is fascinated by fascism – not by the ideology, which he is unable to grasp, but by the bravura of the movement.
Filmed during early Covid in a vast, empty building, with 20 performers in permanent motion, Effemera is about fleeting moments. Commander is inspired by real online chats of the neo-Nazi group FKD, led by a thirteen-year-old boy operating under the nickname Commander.
Riders views human action through the eyes of birds. Of the ancient inhabitants of our planet, sentient, intelligent, free beings, shrouded in mythology. Of the silent observers of our destinies.
Based on a dark comedy written in the Terezín Ghetto in 1944 by camp inmate Karel Svenk but banned on the night of its dress rehearsal for fear of SS reprisals. The play the actors are rehearsing in the film pits bike riders (Jews) against lunatics (Nazis), as did the absurdist original—a silly story with a deeply serious message.
A new project by Yara Arts Group that captures the resilience of Ukrainians in a multi-media performance about Russia’s full- scale invasion of the city.
Noon combines documentary and physical theatre that tells about the events which followed after the demonstration of eight people in Red Square on August 25, 1968.
In Boa, choreographer Paweł Sakowicz wonders about paths by which desire circulates in the body; how it is created through a spatial orientation of bodies; how it can be intermediated through popular culture, discourses, and technologies.
Ballet dancers are said to believe they can fly. And indeed, suspended for a second in a jump, they do.
