Distinguished Audience!

The entire company of the National Theatre and the organisers of the forthcoming Madách Imre International Theatre Meeting were devastated to learn of the outbreak of war on 24 February. Like everyone, we hoped for a few days that the guns would soon fall silent, and that the artists and companies of the now opposing sides could come to Budapest, turning the 8th MITEM into a symbol of peace. That Madách's motto for the meeting, "Bring upon this wide world, brotherhood", can be implemented. Reality has shattered all our hopes.

It is clear by now that Ukrainian and Russian companies will not be able to travel to Hungary and take part in the MITEM festival. A few days ago, Riga’s New Theatre also announced that they will be unable to participate in our festival due to the war situation.

The following companies will not be able to attend the 8th MITEM Festival in spring:

• Ivan Franko National Academic Drama Theatre of Kyiv with the performance Sing, Lola, sing!
• New Theatre of Riga, Latvia, with Oblomov
• Alexandrinsky Theatre of St. Petersburg with TODAY 2016-...
• Vakhtangov Theatre of Moscow with War and Peace

Tickets for the above performances will be refunded at the theatre box office.

We reserve the right to change the programme, and hope to be able to announce not only cancelled productions, but also to offer new ones. The Transcarpathian Regional Hungarian Drama Theatre’s performance of Joёl Pommerat’s This Child!, which won the Award for Best Grand Stage Performance at the GRA Ukrainian National Theatre Festival-Competition in 2020, is scheduled for 2 May. We remain in close contact with our colleagues in Kyiv and are working to show a recorded performance by the Ivan Franko National Drama Theatre during MITEM, and to use the occasion to raise funds for the refugees of the war.

Over the millennia, countless artists have voiced what still matters most to all of us:

O peace! peace!

Let there be peace!

Let war end now!

(Mihály Babits: Before Easter)

(25 March 2022)