On Tour
The Tempest to Budapesta
NTB’s The Tempest will be present on the stage of the Hungarian National Theatre (Budapest) on the 25th of April 2015, along with other great productions, actors and renowned directors.
Present for the second time in one of the most ambitious European theatre festivals, MITEM (Madach International Theatre Meeting), organized by the National Theatre in Budapest, with the support of the Hungarian government, “I. L. Caragiale” National Theatre of Bucharest will present the show The Tempest by William Shakespeare, directed by Alexander Morfov, starring Ion Caramitru.
NTB marked its presence at the previous edition of the festival with the performance Lottery Tickets by I. L. Caragiale, directed by Alexandru Dabija, which enjoyed substantial success, being extensively commented and rated.
The second edition of MITEM Festival will take place between 14 – 28th of April 2015 in the capital of Hungary and will have, as its central theme, the Actor and his art.
The event in Budapest will bring together 20 performances from 13 countries, prestigious companies and theatrical productions, signed by important European and non-European directors: Matthias Langhoff, Toni Servillo, Luk Perceval, Emma Dante, Eugenio Barba, Viktor Rizakov and many others.
It is highly important for us to notice the way national theatres, along with independent companies, directors, playwrights and theatre experts from all around the world react to the transformations of the 21st century, says Attila Vidnyánszky, General manager of the National Theatre of Budapest. In a world marked, on one hand, by globalization and, on the other, by new divisions, especially in Europe, art – and theatre, in particular – is a source of novelty, fruitfulness and provocative ideas that influence our everyday life. It is important for us to be able to meet and communicate with artists of various nationalities, to admire each other’s work and to try to understand one another. In this way, we will be able to discover ourselves in others, to discover them in us, because after a certain point, our purposes no longer differ. I feel that this meeting will bring about such a vision, a broader perspective on things. We want the MITEM productions to be to become experiences shared by artists, the public and theatre experts alike. That is why, in the title of the festival, I included the term “meeting”, through which we wish to transmit the importance of cooperation and the idea of “togetherness”, as opposed to that of competition.
This is the first international participation of The Tempest, which premiered in April 2014, and the second meeting of the well-known Bulgarian director with the cast and members of the Romanian NTB, after having directed The Visit of the Old Lady in 2011.
MITEM Festival is, once again this year, part of Budapest Spring Festival, one of the most significant European festivals dedicated to all arts.
According to Péter Hoppál, the Hungarian Secretary of State for Culture: Budapest should expect an open and stillisticaly diverse encounter. The intercultural meetings, the cooperation and approach to other’s ideas and creation will encourage all theatre artists to renew and perfect their works and, at the same time, to become more connected to their own culture and traditions.
Translated by Ioana Axenoi Pănescu
