The 2026 Desiré Central Station Festival will take place between 13 and 17 November in Subotica.
This year’s edition of the regional contemporary theatre festival, Desiré Central Station, will feature work by Andraš Urban, Béla Pintér, Oliver Frljić, and Jožef Nađ in Subotica under the slogan This is not the end.
The festival will take place between 13 and 17 November at the National Theatre Subotica and the Kosztolányi Dezső Theatre. The program includes eight performances and a music event, featuring guests from Serbia, Hungary, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and France.
The festival will open on November 13 with Utopia, a performance by the Novi Sad Theatre at the Jadran stage. Directed by festival director Andraš Urban, the production serves as a powerful reminder of how to live better by presenting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights both word for word and through physical representation. The text is delivered with raw honesty, without any softening. Gabrijela Crnković won Best Actress at the 38th Festival of Hungarian Theatres in Kisvárda for her role, and the production was named the best performance at the Nišville Jazz Theater Festival in 2026. The cast also includes Aljoša Tasovac, Biljana Šunjka Crnojević and Mina Stojanović, with dramaturgy by Vedrana Božinović. On the same evening, Budapest’s Studio K Theatre will present The Least Ice Age, directed by Dániel Máté Sándor and based on János Térey’s novel. It imagines a series of volcanic eruptions plunging Europe into a new ice age, with average temperatures falling by five degrees and Hungary facing the threat of an illegal movement of “shamanist anarchists” set on toppling the government of national unity.
Dialogues in a Dream
On 14 November, the National Theatre of Târgu Mureș performs Dogtooth, directed by Botond Nagy. Diana Nechit and Andrei Șerban adapt it for the stage from the film by Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippou, and it follows a family isolated behind a high fence. The production is described as a radical parable about totalitarianism, patriarchy and upbringing, shot through with grotesque humour, and is recommended for audiences aged 16 and over. Later that evening, Novi Sad Theatre returns with Life Is a Dream, Selma Spahić’s staging of Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s baroque drama, with dramaturgy by Dimitrije Kokanov. The question of captivity and liberation is at the centre of Spahić’s reading, which reworks the classic through a complex choice of performance language rather than through textual updating alone.
The third day is dedicated to the Pintér Béla Company from Budapest, whose Kabuki is directed by the company’s founder Béla Pintér. It follows a culture manager who must answer a fateful question while opening a new local heritage house, and whose decision sends him on an adventurous journey through the labyrinth of his own conscience. The evening continues with a music performance by Duda Buržujka at the Kosztolányi Dezső Theatre, bringing the third festival day to a close.
On 16 November, Belgrade Drama Theatre presents Black Gold by Dejan Dukovski, directed by Oliver Frljić. The play follows a family caught in several transitions at once, whose arguments are interrupted by the arrival of Angela, a businesswoman who now lives in Spain. Dukovski’s drama suggests that the promised passage from one political system to another was never completed, leaving the family’s values suspended in a vacuum between what was and what was supposed to come. The cast includes Milutin Milošević, Nataša Marković, Anja Ćurčić and Jana Milosavljević.
The festival will conclude on November 17 with two productions. One of these performances, The Philosophy of the Provincial Town, is produced by the Bosnian National Theatre Zenica and directed by Andraš Urban. This production is based on Radomir Konstantinović’s influential philosophical work from 1969. The text for the performance was written by dramaturg Vedrana Božinović in collaboration with the ensemble. It begins with an ironic promise that nothing uncomfortable will happen on stage. Atelier 3+1 from Paris presents Dialogues in a Dream, directed by choreographer Jožef Nađ, who performs with dancer Ivan Faco to the music of John Cage. The piece draws on Zen Buddhism and Central European surrealism and explores the tension between human and puppet. The two performers, in white masks and black hats, move through the spaces between the living and the lifeless, the material and the immaterial.
For more information, visit: desirefestival
Divna Stojanov is a dramaturg and playwright. She writes mainly for children and young people.
