The festival takes place in April and May in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Norrköping and Skellefteå. Four performances will tour between the cities in a collaboration between the National Theatre and local county and city theatres that host the festival.
I am incredibly proud that we can finally launch “React”. Behind it is a unique collaboration around a festival that we hope will both grow and deepen year by year, says Dritëro Kasapi.
“Burning Stories”
The focus is on non-European and Eastern European perspectives. The repertoire includes, among others, the Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour and the Polish Marta Górnicka.
Our ambition is to present strong artists who create magnificent performances, for audiences from north to south. These are works that are based on incredibly burning stories and themes from our time.
Kasapi hopes to reach an audience that might not normally go to the theater.
The West and choral singing
With those in mind, how would you describe the performances?
In Marta Górnicka's choir performance, you have the opportunity to see a story about mothers who have experienced the war in Ukraine, in a very close and humane way.
The ensemble in “Mothers – a song for wartime” consists of girls and women who themselves fled war – or opened their homes to those seeking refuge. “Funny and fearless” is in turn a stand-up show with female comedians.
If you imagine a western film, but in theater, you have “Dark Noon.” With “Echo” you get a wonderful opportunity to see an actor open a script for the first time and slowly but surely watch the story unfold.
The touring theater festival "React" will take place in the spring of 2026 in Stockholm (April 23–25), Gothenburg (April 28–May 10), Norrköping (May 4–10), Skellefteå (April 29–May 7).
The festival consists of the choral performance "Mothers – a song for wartime" by Polish director Marta Górnicka, the experimental "Echo" by Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour and Italian-Palestinian director Omar Elerian, the Western-inspired "Dark Noon" by Danish director Tue Biering and South African choreographer Nhlanhla Mahlangu, and the stand-up performance "Funny and Fearless" with female comedians from the UK and the US.
Tickets for the performances in Stockholm will go on sale on December 2nd and for other cities on December 16th.
