This year’s edition of the International Theater Festival MESS is to take place from  30^th September to 8^th October  2023. The main program will feature twelve performances from all over the world.  

The MESS Festival proudly announces that at its 63^rd edition, the BH audiences will be given the opportunity to see the performance by the world’s most renowned choreographer Akram Khan titled Chotto Desh, directed and adapted by Sue Buckmaster; the performance Wakatt, a Faso Dance Theater production from Burkina Fasso, whose concept and choreography has been developed by the renowned choreographer Serge Aimé Coulibaly. The great Lithuanian director Oskaras Koršunovas returns to MESS Festival after seven years with his spectacular take on Othello. As has been earlier announced, this year’s Festival opens with Caligula, a production by Ivan Franko Theater from Ukraine, directed by Ivan Uryvski, whereas from Germany, we present T4. Ophelia’s Garden, directed by David Stöhr.

As regards the performances from the region, the festival will host a National Theater Belgrade production titled Children, by composer and director Irena Popović, as well as the performance Beneath the Two Suns, a production of the Royal Theater Zetski dom in Cetinje, directed by Boris Liješević.   

This year’s edition of the festival will once again feature a festival premiere, namely that of Alice in Bed, based on the play by Susan Sontag and directed by Zoltán Balázs, with which its co-producers Scene MESS, Sarajevo War Theater SARTR and Theater Maladype are marking the 90^th birth anniversary of Susan Sontag and 30^th anniversary since the premiere of the performance Waiting for Godot, which Sontag directed in besieged Sarajevo. “I find it extremely important that the younger generations learn more about Susan Sontag, about her ideas and her advocacy for peace. That her name is not just the name of a square to them, but that they truly understand her thoughts and how present-day actors interpret her ideas”, said Sylvia Huzsár, the creative producer of the performance.

The representatives of BH theaters at this year’s edition of MESS, as selected by Janko Ljumović, are as follows: The Toth Family, produced by SARTR and Directed by András Urbán; Ivanov, produced by National Theater Sarajevo and directed by Paolo Magelli and A Night with Aleksa, a production of the Croatian National Theater Mostar, directed by Ivica Buljan.

This year’s edition of the festival puts special emphasis on current social affairs, critically addressing all their negative effects on society and clearly articulating its premise that art must at all times be the voice of reason in the world we live in.

  „This year’s MESS once again reflects the time we live in, the time of uncertainty which is a direct consequence of what we’re going through. We live in times of conflicts, wars and natural disasters that take a toll in both a material and a spiritual sense”, said Nihad Kreševljaković, director of the MESS Festival, adding that it is of great importance that this year’s festival is once again resembling a universe of human souls from all over the world that will be presenting themselves on the stages of Sarajevo theaters.  

„The Canton Sarajevo Ministry of Culture and Sport has once again supported the festival which is of great importance for our city and our country. Moreover, we will strive to increase the budget in order that the festival might feature an even greater number of outstanding artists in the future”, said Lejla Mujkić, assistant to the Minister of Culture and Sport of Canton Sarajevo.