Welcome to Oslo Internasjonale Teaterfestival 2025!
“Roots and Reclamations: Theater at the Crossroads of Empire and Identity”

Questions of identity, freedom, democracy and both collective and individual traumas characterize the performances on the festival program. We will be visited by performing artists from Ukraine, Estonia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kosovo. These are countries that have all been, and in some cases still are, subject to authoritarian regimes. In parallel, we will have a topical program with lectures and talks.

When we choose to create a festival with such a clear theme, it is because these questions have moved closer to us in Norway. How are they expressed in a living art form like the performing arts? How is a vibrant art scene and a vibrant public conversation about art maintained when freedom, identity, language, education and culture are or have been threatened?

OITF2025 is curated by Märt Meos, Allan Kaldoja and Marius Ivaskevicius, the team behind the Freedom Festival in Narva, Estonia. A theater that both programs at its own stage in Tallinn and runs a festival in Narva. All with a broad international orientation.

War and peace have often been a framework for creating theatre, as well as some of the most important post-colonial questions: Who am I? Where are my roots? Where does my future lie? This is the backdrop for many of the shows that will be presented at Oslo Internasjonale Teaterfestival 2025.
– The VabaLava team

The festival program will be launched soon.

Welcome!

Jørgen Knudsen
Artistic & General Director