In a multicultural environment, constant openness to the outside world becomes a fundamental human experience – along with the resulting impulse to bring one’s own cultural context into dialogue with that of others. This is my personal experience: I was born in Transylvania and began my theatrical career there. It is in such contexts that we truly understand who we are, who we might become, and how others see us. And we learn to ask different kinds of questions. It is a joy for me that this experience – which, over the course of my professional development, has also become a value system – can be lived and relived in Budapest within the framework of a single festival.

The National Theatre of Budapest is organizing the Madách International Theatre Meeting (MITEM) for the thirteenth time, and this year’s program once again carries an important message: dialogue between cultures is not merely a theory, but a real and elemental encounter of the soul.

A powerful example of this dialogue is the legendary production Cyrano de Bergerac by Japanese director Tadashi Suzuki and his company, SCOT. Drawing on the discipline of Japanese martial arts and Noh theatre, the performance transforms the Western romantic story we know into a breathtaking Eastern ritual.

The Hungarian–Serbian cultural season is also built around dialogue, and within this framework several Serbian productions can be seen at this year’s MITEM: The Crucible from Novi Sad and The Imaginary Invalid from Belgrade hold up a distorted mirror to Balkan society, where the madness of power and social hypochondria become metaphors for everyday survival.

Continuing the reinterpretation of the classics, this year’s MITEM promises further highlights. Director Andrei Șerban, with the ensemble of the Bucharest National Theatre, explores the nature of power in Mary Stuart – Robert Icke’s modern adaptation strips away the pathos of Schiller’s classic and presents a tense political thriller. The courage of contemporary experimentation is embodied by the Harag György Company of Satu Mare in their Richard III, which transforms Shakespeare’s final history play into a rock concert. A true theatrical and musical event is A Macbeth Song, the darkly humorous punk cabaret by the English band The Tiger Lillies and the Catalan company La Perla 29. For those seeking a more meditative experience, the visual poem The Characters of Thought by French playwright, director, and visual artist Valère Novarina offers a unique journey, leading the audience to the borderlands of language, body, and thought.

It is a rare opportunity to immerse ourselves so densely and so soul-stirringly in the cultures of other countries. Theatre offers an exceptional space for this, and the National Theatre of Budapest, home of MITEM, works with the greatest dedication to open its doors and lay bare its spirit to shared thinking and collective reflection.

Réka Szabó
dramaturg, National Theatre of Hungary

(03 February 2026)