Edge of the Future
It is clear and thus unnecessary to emphasize what an arduous journey making the programme of the 54th Bitef was. The negotiations with the companies and the theatres whose performances are chosen lasted for months because it was impossible to predict how the global coronavirus pandemics was going to develop. Although all the human activities in all the parts of the world have been rendered difficult, some of them even impossible, it does not seem egocentric - or it does, but in a way that is appropriate for theatre - to claim that one of the most jeopardized fields is the organization of international theatre festivals. What makes it jeopardized is the fact that theatre practice itself, under the circumstances of the necessary physical distancing, has become almost impossible. Additional frustration, immanent in an international festival, comes from the fact that air travel has been rendered difficult, from recommendations (not) to travel to certain countries, mandatory quarantines… With all those challenges in mind, Bitef art and production team cannot guarantee that the festival will take place as planned, between 9th and 15th September. It will depend on the pandemics, on local and international protocols of public gatherings and air travels, etc.
