This article offers a critical dramaturgical reading of selected performances presented at the Madách International Theatre Meeting (MITEM) in Budapest. Rather than functioning as a conventional festival report, it approaches the programme as a field of aesthetic and political tensions in which contemporary European theatre negotiates questions of identity, embodiment, and representation.

Marx’s Capital was part of the 13th edition of the MITEM theatre festival (Madách International Theatre Meeting), which took place from April 10 to May 11. Since its founding in 2014, MITEM has established itself as a platform for dialogue between theatrical traditions and aesthetic approaches. This year’s festival opened with Shakespeare’s Richard III, directed by István Albu (Romania), and closed with another Richard III, directed by Itay Tiran (Israel). The concept “From Richard to Richard” was not merely a curatorial gesture, but also a reflection on today’s “Europe in a state of emergency.” The program included works by Sophocles, Molière, Voltaire, Gogol, and Chekhov, among others.

Sometimes absence speaks louder than presence. At the 13th MITEM International Theatre Festival 2026 in Budapest, Russia does not take center stage and is not listed as a separate category in the program. Yet a closer look reveals, beneath the surface, an entire map of connections: the Russian theatre school, Chekhovian dramaturgy, directing biographies, and artistic routes leading from Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, and Almetyevsk.