13th Madách International Theatre Meeting

A Bucharest production by world-renowned Romanian director Andrei Șerban; the final stage work of recently deceased French writer-director Valère Novarina; the premiere of a new production by the Feledi Project created as a Croatian–Hungarian co-production; and, thanks to the Serbian–Hungarian cultural season, several productions from Serbia have all been included in the program of the 13th MITEM. The organizers held the festival’s press conference on February 18 at the National Theatre.

The Madách International Theatre Meeting (MITEM) will be held for the thirteenth time, offering audiences a wide range of exciting productions at the National Theatre of Budapest from April 10 to May 11. The event is also closely linked to the Hungarian–Serbian cultural season.

From Paris to Belgrade, from Barcelona to Bucharest, from Novi Sad to Toga in Japan – from East to West, leading companies and exceptional productions arrive at the National Theatre for the month-long 13th Madách International Theatre Meeting (MITEM). Contemporary interpretations of classical works, genre-crossing experiments – world theatre in Budapest.

From Toga in Japan to Naples in Italy, from East to West, numerous renowned companies and fascinating performances will arrive at the month-long 13th Madách International Theatre Meeting (MITEM) at the National Theatre. We offer unique experiences and genre-bending experiments for our theatre-loving audience – both loyal patrons and newcomers. Before the full program is announced in February, I’d like to highlight six performances for your attention.

The stage designs for the imaginary performance of Imre Madách's The Tragedy of Man (1864) were created by students of the Institute of Creative Industries of the University of Sopron under the supervision of Kázmér Tóth. 

The SzFE series has so far published volumes by Theodórosz Terzopulosz, Tadashi Suzuki and Eugeino Barba. Fabre’s work is another contribution to the fact that international theatre knowledge can become part of Hungarian education, and future theatre creators can enrich their individual vision with new forms and content.

As part of this year’s “minority programme,” MITEM and the National Theatre have invited artists and researchers for a professional roundtable discussion. The goal of this meeting is to lay the groundwork for the founding of a World Assotiation of Ethnic Minority Theatres – an international platform designed to unite, support, and amplify the work of this diverse, vibrant, and often challenging field, giving voice and visibility to ethnic minority theatre artists and institutions worldwide.

Theatre is the mirror of the soul, a shared language that bridges nations – connecting past and present, tradition and innovation, people to people. In this spirit, I warmly welcome you to the 12^th Madách International Theatre Meeting (MITEM), which from April 25 to May 25, 2025, will once again open its doors to the world’s most outstanding theatre artists.

'I Am Blood (A Medieval Fairy Tale)' is a powerful ode to blood—the lifeblood that fuels both humanity’s darkest urges and loftiest dreams. “In today's perception, the Middle Ages were a cruel time, but actually not much has changed since then. We still shed blood for power, for money, for love. We still crave blood, and blood is worth more than gold. The play describes the burden of the body, which is subject to obsessions, fixations, suffering and disease.”