Organised by the Csiky Gergely Hungarian State Theatre, TESZT will take place between 19-26 May this year. The festival’s recently announced programme includes I Love You, Turkey, a Bakırköy Municipality Theatre production that was premiered at the 21st Istanbul Theatre Festival in 2017. More than half of this year’s selection comes from the open call that had been launched by the festival for productions from Eastern Europe and the Balkans.

We receive the festival’s decision to feature I Love You, Turkey with great joy as the mediator between TESZT Artistic Director Balázs Attila and the crew of Bakırköy Municipality Theatre. Their first encounter took place in the International Platform, the showcase programme of the Istanbul Theatre Festival in 2018. Each year since 2014, the International Platform presents a programme of selected domestic productions from the Istanbul Theatre Festival to festival directors, art directors of theatre companies and consultants from around the world.

This will not be the first international quest of I Love You, Turkey. The play’s first presentation abroad took place in 2018, at the Theater an der Ruhr in Mülheim, followed by a participation in the Farj festival in Iran. The troupe’s international tour will encompass Heidelberger Stückemarkt to take place between 26 April and 5 May, to be followed by TESZT.

Click for the complete programme of TESZT.