SOPRO Selected for the National Theatre Festival (FNT)

The Romanian Theatre Union (UNITER) has announced the list of productions selected for this year's National Theatre Festival, which will take place in October. The 36th edition of the festival features 36 productions, among them SOPRO – Whispers in the Dark, a play by Portuguese playwright Tiago Rodrigues, directed in Satu Mare by the multiple UNITER Award-winning director László Bocsárdi.

The selection comes as little surprise, as the production has already received considerable recognition within the Romanian theatre community. Earlier this year, it was nominated for four UNITER Awards: Best Performance, Best Director (László Bocsárdi), Best Supporting Actress (Blanka Moldován), and Best Supporting Actor (Csongor Zsolt Nagy).

The Hungarian-language opening of Tiago Rodrigues' play also attracted significant attention in Hungary. At the recent Hungarian Theatres Festival in Kisvárda, the production received the festival's Grand Prize, while its leading actress Kati Méhes was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award, and Blanka Moldován received the Best Supporting Actress Award for her performance.

"Being invited to the National Theatre Festival is an outstanding opportunity for us to present ourselves and our artistic values as perhaps the Hungarian theatre company located farthest from the capital. Fortunately, the Romanian theatre community has also begun to pay close attention to the Harag György Company. This is demonstrated by the fact that, over the past decade, we have been invited to the festival for the third time, whereas during the previous twenty-five years we did not receive a single invitation. Many people remember that at the previous edition of the FNT we participated with Richard III, directed by István Albu, performing before an audience of nearly one thousand in the Ion Caramitru Hall of the National Theatre. Fewer may recall that this series of invitations actually began in 2019 with I Regret Nothing, the world premiere of Székely Csaba's play directed by Zoltán Lendvai. This recognition is a great honour for us and is the result of the dedicated work of our colleagues and guest artists alike," said István Bessenyei Gedő, Artistic Director of the Harag György Company.

Each year, the productions featured in the National Theatre Festival are selected by a panel of distinguished Romanian theatre professionals. This year's selection committee consisted of Raluca Cîrciumaru, Alina Epîngeac, and Sebastian-Vlad Popa.
The festival will take place in Bucharest between 16 and 25 October. The theme of this year's edition is human imperfection, viewed simultaneously as a source of vulnerability and of value, shaping both our identity and our future.