Butrint international theatre festival kicks off

TIRANA, July 18 – A performance by the Bulgaria’s state satirical theatre “Aleko Konstantinov” opened on Thursday evening the 12th edition of the Butrint International Theatre festival. Five international theatre companies from the United States, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria and Ukraine will be participating in the 12 edition of the Butrint International Theatre Festival which returns to the UNESCO World Heritage site of Butrint from July 18 to 23 after a two-year absence. Albania and Kosovo which were expected to participate with Oedipus the King, an ancient Greek tragedy staged last March by the Tirana and Prishtina national theatres, are not participating in the event for unknown reasons. The festival is also paying tribute to late Albanian actors Agim Qiriaqi and Roland Trebicka.
Alfred Bualoti, the festival’s director, says the event will kick off on July 18 with the Bulgarian troupe, to continue with the Madrid theatre which is staging “The House of Bernarda Alba.” American director John Blondell who recently staged Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is bringing another Shakespare part this time “The Tempest.” The Kiev theatre will be participating with a love story while Italy with a performance by the Bergamo street theatre.
Butrint 2000 is an annual theatre festival that takes place on a historic site in the South- Albanian town of Butrinti, on the shore of Lake Butrint. The festival started in 2000 and has presented works by Albanian artists, as well as more than 50 companies coming from Greece, Italy, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro, Poland, Romania, the Netherlands, UK, USA, France, Russia, Sweden etc.