The in:vzbl Festival, organized by the Basca Theatre, brought six shows from Serbia, Poland, Hungary, and Bulgaria to Timișoara, Romania in October 2025 and November 2025 specifically to draw attention to life and struggles in rural communities.
The six shows featured interactive performances, forum theatre, stories with ecological themes, and social documentaries with the intention that invisible voices can be expressed in a safe space, hidden problems become visible, individual trauma is transformed into collective healing, and where social isolation is diminished.
As part of the festival, two two-week artistic residencies took place in November 2025, during which two artists from different countries worked together with groups of children and adults from disadvantaged backgrounds to create unique performances.
Broadcast schedule of the performance videos
Thursday 5 March 2026 at 20:00 EET (Timișoara, Romania, UTC +2). Convert into your timezone.
(Dez)Rădăcinare / (Up)Rooting by Basca Theatre, Timișoara, Romania
(Up)Rooting is about where we came from, who we were, who we are, who we want to be, and where we are heading. It’s about how we understand to connect or reconnect with a place that many of us have forgotten, from which most of us draw our roots and where the fun, the tragicomic, the fatalism, the eternity and the habit of politely and reflexively greeting anyone who passes by on the road was surely born.
(Up)Rooting
A text by Andrei Ursu
Directed by Ana Maria Ursu
Actors: Jacqueline Kohl and Andrei Zgăbaia
Set design: Daria Pau
Choreography: Vika Medviedeva
Lighting/sound: Otniel Floruț
Friday 6 March 2026 at 20:00 EET (Timișoara, Romania, UTC +2). Convert into your timezone.
U Potrazi Za Domom / Seeking Home from Mikser, Serbia
Seeking Home, inspired by Jelena Vladušić’s doctoral thesis, uses photographs as a window into the stories of those who crossed the Balkans in search of a new life. In these images, we see not only migrants, but traces of longing, strength, and questions we all carry with us: Where do we belong? What is home? The stories of women, men, and children are translated into a powerful theatrical experience, performed by two actresses who take on multiple roles in a space that changes before the audience’s eyes.
Seeking Home
Dramatization, direction, and stage design: Anđelka Nikolić
Actors: Andrijana Dragnić and Jana Dekanski
Saturday 7 March 2026 at 20:00 EET (Timișoara, Romania, UTC +2). Convert into your timezone.
Burza Nad Popradem / Storm Over Poprad by Teatr Tej Ziemi, Poland
The show is inspired by Shakespeare’s play The Tempest and Carpathian mythology. It tells the story of Mira, the owner of a guesthouse on the Poprad River, and her son, Arek, who faces family trauma in the shadow of local legends and beliefs. The performance combines shadow theater, ritual, choreography, and Augusto Boal’s “spect-actor” method, drawing the audience into an interactive process of co-creating the performance.
Storm Over Poprad
Authors: Karolina Fortuna, Andrzej Skowron, Szymon Budzyk
Artistic direction: Szymon Budzyk
Cast: Karolina Fortuna, Andrzej Skowron
Set design: Alicja Gołyźniak
Costumes: Alicja Gołyźniak
Music: Kat Poręba
Sunday 8 March 2026 at 20:00 EET (Timișoara, Romania, UTC +2). Convert into your timezone.
Магистрала / The Highway by Toni Dimov Karabashev Company, Bulgaria
The show Магистрала / The Highway is both a comedy and a social drama that tells the story of a small Bulgarian village facing the tumultuous waves of modernization and globalization. The plot revolves around the news that a new highway connecting Bulgaria to Western Europe will pass through the middle of the village. For the inhabitants, this event becomes not just an infrastructure project, but a real cultural and personal upheaval.
The Highway
Author: Toni Karabashev
Artistic direction: Toni Karabashev
Cast: Ivan Todorov, Igor Damjanov
Set and costume design: Toni Karabashev, Ivan Todorov, Igor Damjanov
Music and choreography: Dobri Kisyov
Monday 9 March 2026 at 20:00 EET (Timișoara, Romania, UTC +2). Convert into your timezone.
Legjobb Falu / The Best Village – Independent Theater Hungary
What makes a young teacher, a recent graduate, worthy of starting her journey in a forgotten village, where opportunities are rare and hope flickers like a faint flame? Can her love for children and devotion to teaching be enough to make her stay? What happens when idealism fades, when promises prove empty, and the burden becomes too heavy to bear alone? Would you stay?
The show Legjobb Falu / The Best Village is a story about friendship, belonging, and the power of community, told through the eyes of a young Roma girl and the village librarian, united by their desire to bring life back to their village through the stories they have collected for the “Best Village” competition.
The Best Village
Author: Márton Illés
Director: Henrik Nagy
Artistic director: Henrik Nagy
Cast: Ramóna Farkas and Nóra Nemcsók
Set design: Bálint Knyihár, Péter Lovas
Costumes: Bóróka Nagy
Music: Misi Etlinlinger
Dramaturgy: Tímea Éva Bogya
Tuesday 10 March 2026 at 20:00 EET (Timișoara, Romania, UTC +2). Convert into your timezone.
Izumrli Predmeti / Extinct Objects by Talas Cultural Center, Serbia
What could a dinosaur and an old cassette player that still purrs softly when you press “play” possibly have in common? They all find their place in this interactive show for children (but also for adults with a childlike spirit), where forgotten objects come to life and become characters, storytellers, or even stage partners. The show uses the magic of old objects – a retroprojector that shows images on the wall, a tape recorder that plays sounds from the past – to tell children an important story about our world.
Extinct Objects
Director: Irena Antin
Actor: Vladimir Beljic
Visual identity: Konstantinos Petrovic
Production associate: Marina Todic
Graphic design: Nadja Petuhov
