THE 7TH INTERFERENCES INTERNATIONAL THEATRE FESTIVAL WAS A GREAT SUCCESS

Organized by the Hungarian Theatre of Cluj, the 7^th Interference International Teathre Festival held between November 19-29 ended Sunday, with a livestreamed concert performed by the Loose Neckties Society actors’ band.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the festival parted with its traditional proceedings and moved online. During the eleven days of the festival, thirty-four performances were available on the festival’s website and Facebook page – with the Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne’s production of Be Arielle F that could be viewed live on Zoom, complemented but other extraordinary events as well, such as the online book launch of The Tragedy of Man album, and the online premiere of a special project that was in fact a theatrical multimedia installation entitled Escapist.fbx.

The performances of the festival were grouped into three sections. The Horizons section, which focused on the theme of this year’s festival, featured performances including some that would have been presented to audiences at the live, in-person version of the event in Cluj, if the Interferences had taken place in its physical form; the UTE30 section was comprised of a selection of performances staged by its members as tribute to the 30^th anniversary of the organization, while the OFF programme featured performances by independent theatrical companies and young artists.

The performances of the 7th Interference Festival were viewed by 35,944 people from fifty-four countries around the world. Most viewers tuned in from Romania and Hungary, but also countries like Albania, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Northern Macedonia, Mexico, Moldova, Morocco, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

The most interest was garnered by the performances of The Tragedy of Man, directed by Silviu Purcărete, Paso Doblé (the creation of Josef Nadj and Miquel Barceló), Alexandru Darie’s staging of The Winter’s Tale, Giorgiu Strehler’s direction of Faust and The Merchant of Venice, directed by Gábor Tompa.

The 2020 Interferences International Theatre Festival was able to be organized due to the support of the Ministry of Culture, the Government of Hungary, the Bethlen Gábor Fund, and the Cluj-Napoca Mayor's Office and City Council.

The next, 8^th edition of the Interferences International Theatre Festival, organized by the Hungarian Theatre of Cluj, will take place in November 2022, in a traditional, offline setting.