The second edition of PrizrenFest, Kosovo’s open air theatre festival, will take place between 22nd-28th July.
This year’s edition of PrizrenFest, the city’s open-air international theatre festival, will feature twelve theatre performances by artists from Kosovo, Albania, North Macedonia, Ukraine, Montenegro, Italy, Greece, Czechia, Slovakia, and Bulgaria, which will be performed in Prizren’s cultural and historical open spaces, including Kino Lumbardhi and the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour.
The PrizrenFest festival was founded last year by Kosovar artists including Shkelzen Veseli, Adrian Morina, and Zana Duraku to promote cultural exchange and to expose local artists to new theatrical international trends.
This year’s festival’s opening ceremony will take place on Saturday, July 22nd at Kino Lumbardhi, followed by a performance of Maidan Inferno, a co-production between the Academic Drama and Comedy Theater Dnipro, Ukraine and Company Collapse Lyon, France. On the second night of the festival, three plays will be performed in different locations across the city: the Integra production of Father and Father, written by Jeton Nerizaj and directed by Kushtrim Koliqi, will be performed at Halveti’s Lake, the Czech production Aurora will be performed on a platform on the river and the Prizren City Theater “Bekim Fehmiu” production of Tennessee Williams’ The Rose Tattoo will be performed at the League of Prizren.
On July 24th, La Morteana from Italy’s Furlan Udine Theater will be performed at the Frontyard of the League of Prizren, and Zoran Rakocevic’s Iphigenia from Montenegro’s Kolashin Cultural Center will be shown at Kino Lumbardhi. On July 25th, Gadjo (The Young Europeans), a Kosovar-Albanian co-production between Qendra Multimedia and the National Experimental Theater “Kujtim Spahivogli” Tirana, with a text by Jeton Neziraj directed by Blerta Neziraj, will be shown at Our Lady of Perpetual Succour Cathedral, and 21 and counting, by Product of Radical Empathy from Slovakia, will be shown at Sinan Pasha Kej.
Life Is a Dream, Theatre Zong
On July 26th, Megalomania, by Kosovo’s Noa Dance Theater Company, will be performed at Sinan Pasha Kej; the Athens and Epidaurus Festival production of Thebes, a Global Civil War, will be shown at Kino Plato on July 27th; on the final night, Bulgaria’s Zong Theater will present Life is a Dream at Kino Lumbardhi.
In addition to main artistic programme, PrizrenFest will include workshops, children’s theatre performances, and panels. Spectators can attend all the events and performances for free. There will also be a programme of children’s theatre which will take place at Abi Çarshia. Performances will include Zana Duraku’s The Magical Key, and Tom and Jerry and Beep-Beep from Kosovo’s Dodona Theatre. Teatrosk, a street performance from North Macedonia will be performed on the fourth and fifth nights of the festival, while The Crocodile, by Albanian Youth and Children’s Theater Skopje, will be performed at Kino Lumbardhi as part of the youth programme.
The workshop programme will include “Movement and Shadow Theater” and “Digital Theatre.” On July 26th, there will also be a conference on “Theatre as a Tool for Social Change and Transformation” which will be will be held at The House of Shani Efendia. A discussion on “Collaboration between Albanian Theaters: Advantages, Challenges, and Opportunities” will be held on July 22nd at the House of Shani Efendia.
For more info visit PrizrenFest on Facebook
Further reading: review of Father and Father
Further reading: review of Zong Theater’s Life is a Dream
Flamur Dardeshi is a freelance writer based in Tirana. He has contributed in the areas of translation, analysis, and poetry. His main fields of interest are literature, cinematography, and theatre.
