Utilising the international media attention that Torino received during the Winter Olympics last year, the organiser of the theatre festival, Teatro Stabile, expects the largest ever turnout this year, with 15 troupes from nine countries participating.
The theme for this year's festival is ancient theatre. The festival is dedicated to the memory of the late Italian director Giorgio Strehler, the former director of Milan's Piccolo Teatro.
Performances will be held at six venues around Turin. The József Katona Theatre, directed by Gábor Zsámbéki, will perform a play by Carlo Goldoni on October 30 and November 1. The State Hungarian Theatre of Cluj-Napoca, directed by Gabor Tompa, will perform András Visky's Long Friday, which is based on Imre Kertész' novel Kaddish for the Unborn Child, on November 17 and 18.
The festival will open on October 25 with a performance of King Lear directed by Le Dodin performed by Russia's Maly Teatr, a returning guest of the festival. The list of directors whose works will be featured during the event include Roger Planchon, Georges Lauvaudant, Stéphane Braunschweig, Dimiter Gotscheff, Claudio Longhi, Gabriele Lavia, Ricardo Pais and Luca Ronconi.
The theme for next year's festival, to be held in Cluj-Napoca, will be Renaissance theatre, and the following year's festival, to be held in Barcelona and Madrid, will focus on contemporary issues in a united Europe, said chairman of the Union of European Theatres and director of Bucharest's Bulandra Theatre Alexandru Darie.
