This year, the festival will offer more than three hundred events across dozens of venues in the historic city center and, alongside the domestic stage, it will once again bring significant international projects. The dramaturgy emphasizes diversity of forms – from drama to puppet and visual theatre, as well as physical and site-specific projects in public spaces.
The international program has long been a pillar of the festival and this year is no different – ensembles from Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Slovakia will come to Hradec Králové. Many productions will be possible to see in the Czech Republic for the very first time and exclusively within the festival.
A traditional part of the festival is the residency project – this year it is no elders in this city, created in cooperation between Chemické divadlo and Divadlo Setkání. The production focuses on the theme of aging in the city and works with authentic stories of seniors who participate as active creators on the project. It combines theatre, performance, sound installations, and participatory formats and is created in close contact with specific places and their daily rhythms. “This year, we wanted to find a production for the public space that communicates directly with it and naturally merges with its tempo-rhythm,” says Barbora Hodonická. “We have provisionally called the sought form a pop-up production, which disappears as unobtrusively as it appears, yet brings essential messages.”
Tickets will be available online and at traditional sales points including the Hradec Králové Information Centre. As in previous years, a large part of the program in public spaces remains accessible for free or for voluntary admission. Discounted accreditations will be prepared for students of art schools.