10th Theater Olympics | 31/05/2023 | 19.00
National Theatre of Pécs

A theatrical gathering created in Greece in 1995 in the spirit of tradition, modernity, and the ancient Olympics. The founders were renowned directors and playwrights from Greece, Japan, the USA, Spain, the UK, Russia, Germany and Brazil. From time to time, one of the largest and most prestigious events in world theatre finds a home in a particular city or country. The 2023 Olympics in Budapest will be the 10th in the history of Theatre Olympics.

The first festival in Delphoi featured only 9 performances from 7 countries in about two weeks. The 1999 Theatre Olympics in Japan, which lasted two months, attracted 42 productions from 20 countries, while the grand 2001 Moscow Festival invited 97 productions from 32 countries over two and a half months. The 2018 Olympics in India went even further, with some 470 performances from 35 countries. The 2019 Olympics had 2 capitals, i.e. the Russian metropolis of St Petersburg and the small Japanese city of Toga, the theatre centre of Olympic founder Suzuki Tadashi. The Hungarian Olympics is to include around 300 performances.
The organisation that safeguards the spirit of the International Theatre Olympics and supervises the organisation of each Olympics is called the International Committee. It includes the founding members who are still active, and there are always new members: the organisers of previous Olympics also become members of the Committee. At the Committee’s request, the Olympics of a given year is directed and organised by a leading theatre personality from the country concerned. Attila Vidnyánszky, head of the National Theatre, has been invited by the Committee to organise the 2023 events in Budapest and Hungary.

In Budapest and across Hungary, the 10th Theatre Olympics will feature performances by some of the world’s leading theatre artists, including Theodoros Terzopulos, Suzuki Tadashi, Romeo Castellucci, Krytian Lupa, Slava Polunyin, Heiner Goebbels, Silviu Purcărete, Eugenio Barba, Tiago Rodrigues, Alessandro Serra, Christoph Marthaler, Liu Libin, Declan Donnellan, Ivan von Hove and many others… In addition, there will be dance, puppetry and street theatre performances, with a total of around 750 events. The main events of the Olympics will take place at the 9th Madách International Theatre Meeting, MITEM, at the National Theatre in Budapest.

Within the scope of the 10th Theatre Olympics Ballet Pécs invited the Ballet Company of the Croatian National Theatre Ivana pl. Zajca, Rijeka to perform Romeo and Juliet at the National Theatre of Pécs on 31st May 2023.

Romeo and Juliet perfectly capture the rush of being in love and the desire to make that feeling last forever despite daunting circumstances. Although the story is often thought to be about love and it’s power, actually love is included in only a few fragile moments of satisfaction – making love duets that much sweeter and more precious. The theme of the play are violence and chaos, confusion and death, especially in the context of life’s fragile beauty juxtaposed to the needlessness of death amongst youth.
The story teaches one of letting old family wounds go, and not letting your emotions rule your life. The Montague and the Capulets have let an old family rivalry take away the future of their own children. It is a narrative that expresses a historical conflict between old forms of identity and new modes of desire, between authority and freedom, between parental will and romantic individualism.

Choreography: Jiří Bubeníček
Concept and dramaturgy: Jiří Bubeníček / Nadina Bubeníček Cojocaru
Set designer: Aleksandra Ana Buković
Costume design: Nadina Bubeníček Cojocaru
Light design: Dalibor Fugošić / Jiří Bubeníček
Video projections: Fanni Tutek-Hajnal / Nadina Bubeníček Cojocaru

Juliet: Maria Matarranz de las Heras
Romeo: Michele Pastorini
Capulet: Ali Tabbouch
Lady Capulet: Marta Voinea Čavrak
Nurse: Marta Kanazir Bagadur
Tybalt: Antoine Salle
Paris: Jody Bet
Lady Montague: Tea Rušin
Montague: Alejandro Polo
Mercutio: Valentin Chou
Benvolio: Leonardo De Santis
People of Montague: Soyoka Iwata / Milica Mučibabić
People of Capulet: Ksenija Krutova / Anna Zardi / Maria del Mar Hernandez
Friar Laurence: Janne Boere
Prince Escalus: Andrei Köteles
Two actors: Ivna Bruck / Mario Jovev

Ballet masters: Paula Rus / Daniele Romeo
Stage manager: Anca Zgurić

The Hungarian Theatre Olympics is funded by the Hungarian Government.

Photo: Fanni Tutek-Hajnal