Reflections on a range of socio-political issues are within the gene pool of the International Festival Divadelná Nitra. They appear in different forms within the Festival programme. The aim of the programming is to draw attention to these issues, highlight them and thus convey them clearly to the public. The focus of the Festival management and team is reflected in the choice of issues, that gives it a distinct ideological direction. Principally, the themes reflect the existential sense of the contemporaries -artists and others engaged in culture.

Individual Festival editions thus highlight such themes as the quest for identity, reconciliation with the past, visions of the future, issues of immigration, integration, poverty, environmental protection, or, in general, depreciation of values. The leitmotif of each Festival edition, that varies from year to year, is thus a symbolic indicator of the overarching theme of an annual edition, whilst also serving as the common denominator of the themes of individual performative works. At the same time, the leitmotif is an incentive to search for content or conceptual connections, links between individual components or works within the Festival programme.

The leitmotif is an inspiration for visual solutions, an incentive to play with the meanings of the term. Imaginary map, a network of mental and communication links is thus created, and the idea is fulfilled of the Festival as a platform for cultural exchange and the advancement of critical thinking.

The subtitle of the International Theatre Festival Divadelná Nitra 2025 is: Right(s) Here, Right(s) now!

Right(s) Here, Right(s) now! – the leitmotif of the 34th Festival edition – puts the convenor’s ambitions in a framework of Festival’s further programming direction on several levels. The vantage point is to use the pun to highlight the issue of fundamental rights in relation to the society or citizens, to the environment, with an emphasis on the timeliness and topicality of the threat they face.

Right(s) Here, Right(s) now! covers programme elements that reflect a society affected by a series of crises (in Slovak and international context) and search for the causes of the malaise such as overlooking problems or making wrong decisions. What are the possibilities for protecting fundamental rights – the right to self-determination of nations and countries, the right to life and existence of groups threatened by climate change, the right to own cultural and linguistic identity of minorities, fundamental civil rights and many others – that tend to be the first victims of times of crisis? In addition to drawing attention to the current situation, the Festival aims to draw attention to the causes that led to it. Very often, they result from overlooking problems in the past.

Right(s) Here, Right(s) now! is intended to be a testament to the first quarter of the 21st century of, the last quarter century when we are still able to pretend that climate change, the influence of social media, or the state of democracy in the Western world are issues that can bear postponement and do not need to be addressed here and now.

Within the main Festival programme, we present a new programming line called Just Created to support independent theatres in Slovakia, and to bring a moment of exclusivity to the Festival and the Slovak section of the main programme.

Within the accompanying programme, the theme means, inter alia, an emphasis on the use of the natural character of urban locations and on the human right to public space. We do not intend to change that during the Festival, but to highlight its qualities and characteristics, and to inspire interest public interest.

The Festival will be held over six days in Nitra – from 6 to 11 June 2025. Building upon the inspiring cooperation in 2024 (Slovak National Theatre Bratislava, National Theatre Košice), we will bring Festival bonus – the 2025 DN Echo programme segment as a one-day format in Bratislava in the Autumn.