At the National Theatre Festival, October 17–26, audiences will be able to attend meetings, debates, workshops, and exhibitions/installations

On the festival’s opening day, at the National Museum of Contemporary Art – MNAC Bucharest (between 12:00 and 19:00), there will be a theatre workshop titled “Kantor. Around the Return of Odysseus”, dedicated to students and young people interested in stage creation.
Hosted within the FNT and organized by Cricoteka – the Documentation Center of Tadeusz Kantor’s Art in Poland – together with MNAC Bucharest, the workshop explores texts selected by Kantor, in which the great artist reflects on the creative process behind his production The Return of Odysseus and on how memory can become material for theatre. According to the organizers, the workshop will also analyze “the myth of Odysseus and the archetypal theme of returning home – a universal yet deeply personal experience.”
The session will be led by Gosia Jakubowska Raczkowska, a graduate of the National Academy of Theatrical Arts in Krakow, a member of the Sztuka Łączenia Foundation Council, and an educator at Cricoteka, where she has coordinated and led educational projects. She works in documentary theatre, drawing inspiration from real stories and personal memories. The workshop will be limited to 12 participants.

During FNT35, the MNAC will also host the exhibition “Costume / Sculpture / Body. Kantor’s theatrical objects”, brought by Cricoteka.
A “visionary, a total artist, a revolutionary of theatre, the most international of Polish artists and the most Polish among international ones,” Tadeusz Kantor (1915–1990) was one of the most important creators of the 20th century. His Cricot 2 Theatre constantly transcended the traditional limits of the stage.
The exhibition from Cricoteka’s collection illustrates the phenomenon of Tadeusz Kantor through his theatrical objects—costumes, sculptures, and more. These objects bear not only the mark of his performances but also the conceptual process behind them:

“These works did not arise from the temporary needs of a particular show, but are closely tied to the ideas that define my creation. [...] They contain enough inner tension and meaning to exist as autonomous works of art.”
 (Tadeusz Kantor)

#implicAT micro-section

FNT35 also hosts the #implicAT micro-section, organized by the Austrian Cultural Forum (FCA), featuring three performative projects that bring together performing arts from Austria and Romania. These initiatives, at the intersection of theatre, photography, literature, video, and performance, explore solidarity, civic responsibility, and the dialogue between artist and spectator.

The first event, “Behind the curtain/camera: Franzi Kreis in conversation with Irina Wolf” (October 18, 11:00, ARCUB), focuses on visual expression methods in the performing arts with Franzi Kreis, one of Vienna’s most innovative contemporary artists, internationally recognized for her interdisciplinary approach combining theatre, photography, biography, and live performance in the darkroom.
Kreis applies a unique technique—developing photographs directly on stage, turning the artistic act into an immersive emotional experience. Presented in more than 47 performances of Die Scham (Shame), based on Annie Ernaux, at Vienna’s Volkstheater, this method has captivated audiences by merging theatre and analog processes. Kreis collaborates with leading institutions such as Wiener Festwochen and Wiener Staatsoper and is preparing a Romanian-Austrian co-production scheduled for 2026–2028.

The talk will be moderated by Irina Wolf, theatre critic and expert in Austrian theatre, exploring Kreis’s techniques and the social issues her work addresses.

Other highlights

Another key event is “Ephemeral forms, persistent ideals – because democracy is cool!” (October 22, 16:00, ARCUB), a project produced by FCA and the “Andrei Mureșanu” Theatre of Sfântu Gheorghe. It explores the values of performing arts and the democratic experience through the results of the collective project Democracy is Cool!, created by the Austrian collective Mutual Loop and 15 artists from five countries. The event will feature a live presentation, video examples, and a discussion with Martina Tritthart, Holger Lang, Anna Maria Popa, and other participants. The project is in collaboration with MAGMA Contemporary Medium, the Polish Institute, and the Goethe-Institut Bucharest, under the EUNIC Romania umbrella.

The video installation “literATtitudes” will be on display at the National Theatre Bucharest (Marble Foyer, October 17–26), produced by the Austrian Cultural Forum, ORF, and the Austrian Society for Literature, under the theme “words as spotlights.” Twelve major voices of contemporary Austrian literature share what it means to be socially engaged through writing and how they choose to present their texts publicly.

The debate “Dramaturgies, adaptations, and poetics” (October 19, 11:00, ARCUB, Main Hall) will feature Radu Afrim (associate artist of FNT35) in conversation with Ionuț Sociu (cultural journalist and playwright), discussing Afrim’s multiple roles—as playwright, stage adapter, and creator of interdisciplinary bridges between Romanian theatre and contemporary literature.

The photography exhibition “Everything is Theatre” by Hungarian artist Zsuzsa Hullan will open on October 20, 17:00, at the Media Hall Foyer of the National Theatre Bucharest. Proposed by the Liszt Institute – Hungarian Cultural Centre, the exhibition showcases Hullan’s photographs, she herself being an actress at Budapest’s Vígszínház Theatre.

“For me, photography is the imprint of a spoken word, a fleeting moment, a lived gesture. My photos are emotional spirals, labyrinths meant to touch, surprise, and reveal hidden perspectives—as if seen with a third eye.” (Zsuzsa Hullan)
The exhibition will be open throughout FNT35.

Feminist theatre archives

A free discussion titled “One woman does not make a spring. Archives of yesterday for today’s theatre” will take place on October 24, 11:00, at ARCUB. The event explores archives of female creators in Romanian theatre and how they can be rediscovered and recontextualized for contemporary audiences. It will also present the long-term project “FEM 100 Feminist Theatre Archive”, which has so far hosted four conferences, two workshops, one performative reading, and five online exhibitions.
The producer is the Romanian Association for the Promotion of Performing Arts (ARPAS). The discussion will feature Gianina Cărbunariu, Cristina Modreanu, and Ionuț Sociu.

More details about the events in FNT35 are available at www.fnt.ro and on the festival’s official Facebook and Instagram accounts. 

Written by News.ro |