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The first production I saw last night at the 13th MITEM Festival at the National Theatre in Budapest, Queen of my heart, by Nicola McAuliffe, takes on a subject that is curiously absent from contemporary theatre: ageing.

MITEM (Madách International Theatre Meeting), held annually at the National Theatre in Budapest, is one of Central Europe’s major international theatre festivals. Since its founding in 2014, it has brought together companies from across Europe and beyond, positioning itself as a platform for dialogue between theatrical traditions, languages, and aesthetic approaches. Rather than functioning as a conventional showcase, MITEM has developed a reputation for carefully curated programs that reflect broader cultural and political questions shaping the region.

The new exhibition of the Nemzeti Színház brings to light the silenced stories of the past: the fates of actors who, between 1947 and 1989, were forced to make decisions under the shadow of political power. The exhibition is not only an act of remembrance, but also a provocation—raising questions about artistic freedom, responsibility, and the weight of the spoken word.

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 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.”