The 31st edition of the Sibiu International Theatre Festival has come to an end

Yesterday marked the end of the 31st edition of one of the largest and most important theatre and performing arts festivals in the world, the Sibiu International Theatre Festival. This year, FITS offered the public over 830 events, involving over 5000 artists hailing from 82 countries. This edition’s theme was Friendship, while the official hashtags were #PrieteniPeViață (#FriendsForLife) and #FITS2024.

This edition gathered friends of the festival from all corners of the world, giving them the opportunity to reunite with art at the highest level. During the 10 festival days, the public was presented with figures such as John Malkovich, Tim Robbins, Isabelle Adjani, Pippo Delbono, Jan Fabre, Neil LaBute, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Lukasz Twarkowski, Rafaela Carrasco, Hervé Koubi or David Gutiérrez.

The last day of FITS 2024

The last day of FITS ended with two special events. The Sibiu International Theatre Festival’s closing gala took place on Sunday evening, at the Astra National Museum Complex in Sibiu, with the National Chamber Choir “Madrigal – Marin Constantin” performing the show Rituals, a concept-show, built around universal rituals. Directed by Emil Pantelimon and conducted by Anna Ungureanu, the Madrigal Choir offered an exceptional artistic treat to those present in the lake area of ​​the Astra museum complex. The show was created especially for this year's edition of the Sibiu International Theatre Festival, and took place after sunset, on the shore of Lake Dumbrava. After the Madrigal Choir’s concert, multiple scenes dedicated to rituals were performed, until after midnight. The area around the lake became a great artistic universe, where the audience witnessed some video mapping projections in the forest, while simultaneously being in constant dialogue with the artists.

The second event which closed out FITS 2024 was the drone show, combined with eco-friendly fireworks and music, in the Theatre Square. Compared to last year, this year’s show lasted longer, namely, around 15 minutes, and featured 280 illuminated drones that put on a real show on the skies of Sibiu, under the excited gazes of thousands of spectators gathered in the city centre.

During the festival’s conclusion, thousands of people enjoyed the live Gypsy Folie concert in the Main Square. The formidable Macedonian brass band took the West by surprise with their 1997 album L’Orient est rouge. The band’s characteristic thunderous style then became extremely popular: their powerful rhythm section of drums plus four tubas, soloists brimming with pathos and funk elements of the music invite any kind of audience to dance. Oriental brass bands are a specialty of Roma from all over the Balkans, from Serbia to Macedonia.

Last but not least, the final day of FITS 2024 offered the public multiple theatre, music, dance and circus performances. At the Fabrica de Cultură Unicredit Performance Hall, The Son by Florian Zeller was performed, directed by Cristi Juncu from the Toma Caragiu Theatre of Ploiești. Nicholas, a young man, is struggling through a difficult time in his life. After his parents’ divorce, he remains in the custody of his mother, Anne, while his father, Pierre, has remarried and had a child with Sofia, his second wife. Incapable of adapting to his new reality, Nicholas isolates himself from school, friends and family, while the memory of his always-smiling, contagiously happy childhood self gets farther and farther away. Restoring Nicholas’ emotional balance proves to be more difficult than his parents expected, even after he moves in with his father.

The street performance The Legend of Hamelin, a possible history of the Saxons brought before the public an event told by multiple different voices throughout time. It is said that the first Saxons came from Hamelin to Transylvania. Their trip was reimagined by every fairy-tale-loving author, having been transformed into one of the most powerful tales about the vulnerability of human beings when faced with the truth. The show was directed by Andrei and Andreea Grosu from the National Theatre Radu Stanca Sibiu and it was performed at the Evangelical Church of Turnișor.

A land of dreams. Nostalgia for a past we never lived. Or that we’ve forgotten. A contemporary art curator, who used to be a singer in her youth, wins the selection to represent Romania at the Venice Art Biennale, with her performative installation called “10 Things I Lost At The Mamaia Festival.” During the six months spent in Venice, 10 performers confined to the exhibition floor relive real or fictional memories from Romanian pop music, which happened (or didn’t) at Mamaia, concerning iconic stars but above all, little, unfulfilled artistic destinies. This was 10 Things I Lost At The Mamaia Festival¸ a production of the Constanța State Theatre, by Gabriel Sandu, directed by Elena Morar and Gabriel Sandu. The show was nominated for the 2024 UNITER prize for Debuts, Ramona Niculae, and a UNITER nomination for Best Supporting Role Actor, Ștefan Mihai.

At the Gong Theatre, there was a performance of The Whale by Samuel D. Hunter, directed by Andrei Huțuleac from the Metropolis Theatre in Bucharest. Charlie hasn’t left his home in years. Not even to greet the couriers delivering his food. Charlie is very ill. This could be the last week of his life. “The Whale” turns us into witnesses to the attempt of an isolated man to come to terms with his own choices, and most importantly, to gain the forgiveness of the ones he loves. The show received a nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role at the 2024 UNITER Awards Gala – Sorin Miron.

Gong Theatre also held a performance of Servant of Two Masters alla turca, by Carlo Goldoni / Kıvanç Kılınç, directed by Muhammet Uzuner. The classic comedy of Italian writer Carlo Goldoni, the most played classic comedy in the world for centuries, is now adapted by Kıvanç Kılınç in 19th century Istanbul, in the final era of the Ottoman Empire. Adapting the text, Kıvanç Kılınç localized the spaces and characters and created a sense of rhythm by using rhyming language. Muhammet Uzuner brought to the stage the traditions of popular theatre from two Mediterranean countries, very alike with one another, by synthesizing elements of “Commedia dell’Arte” and “Middle Play.”

The end of FITS 2024

Hundreds of theatre, contemporary dance or circus performances, exhibitions, installations of the Visual Arts Platform, special conferences, The Performance Scholarship, The Doctoral Research Platform and the Theatre Universities Festival – together with the Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Therme Forum, as well as all the other FITS-associated events, sent a strong message of FRIENDSHIP along with the event’s partners, volunteers and organizers.

FITS 2024 in numbers

For ten days, friends of the festival all over the world followed the performances in Sibiu, its surroundings and online spaces. An estimate of the daily average number of participants is approximately 100,000 people.

In online spaces, FITS broke new records as well. The FITS website had over 100,000 visitors in June, and the mobile application exceeded 10,000 hits.

On social media, over 150,000 users saw the posts and videos of the FITS Instagram account, a 50% increase over the previous edition, while the Facebook messages were seen by over 500,000 Romanians.

The ten editions of FITS Talks, the online show moderated by writer Marius Chivu, gained over 100,000 views until the moment of writing.

Over 70 texts written by the FITS Communication Team, including transcripts of the FITS 2024 special conferences, interviews, as well as many other articles the different sections of this edition of the Festival are available on blog.sibfest.ro. Materials will continue being published in the coming weeks. FITS 2024 is over, but its stories continue to be told!

The 32nd edition of the Sibiu International Theatre Festival will take place between the 20th and 29th of June, 2025. See you in Sibiu!