WILL matters | Will breeds matter Shakespeare
Festival

Shakespeare Indoor represents the backbone of the festival — the official competition and international selection section. Theatre companies from Asia, Europe, America, and Africa bring their boldest visions of Shakespeare's work to the stage of the Marin Sorescu National Theatre. Each show is a reinterpretation — no two productions are alike.

Indoor shows are presented with subtitles in Romanian and English. Some productions are in rare languages — Japanese, Arabic, Swahili, Hindi — adding an extra layer of cultural fascination. Seating is limited, making tickets sell out quickly, especially for premieres and opening/closing shows.

Shakespeare Village is the vibrant and democratic heart of the festival — the place where anyone can become a spectator, without a ticket, without a reservation, without restrictions. An open-air stage in the center of Craiova with live music, street performances, physical theatre, contemporary dance, and spontaneous performances.

The Village atmosphere is unique: the audience sits on the grass, on steps, on the edge of fountains — or simply walks by and stops. Artists from 20+ countries mix with local artisans, food trucks with international cuisine, and light installations that transform the Craiova night into something else. This section is not reserved and not planned — it is lived.

Through Squares & Metropolitan, the festival refuses to stay within performance halls. Theatre goes out into the streets — into Craiova's central squares, residential neighborhoods, and surrounding communes that normally do not benefit from access to culture. Every corner of the city becomes a possible stage.

Metropolitan shows are specifically designed for unconventional spaces: apartment building stairs, park corners, industrial halls, and local markets. The WILL matters theme takes on a social dimension in this section — art reaches people who wouldn't normally seek it out, and they become spectators without having planned it.

Youth are at the center of attention for the 2026 edition. Through Shakespeare Teen, over 1,000 students from Craiova schools will transform Mihai Viteazu Square into a unique interactive multimedia installation — a Shakespeare lesson on the scale of an entire city.

Shakespeare Kids is the territory of Shakespearean play: age-appropriate shows, improvisation workshops, animation theatre, and a living library with stories from the Bard's works. Ideal for families with children between 4 and 12 years old.

Through Shakespeare & Erasmus, the University of Craiova welcomes 100+ students from 30 countries — they are not mere spectators, but co-creators: they participate in workshops, create their own artistic interventions in public spaces, and contribute to the documentation and dissemination of the festival at a European level.

Shakespeare Innovations is the section that looks to the future without forgetting the past. New technologies — virtual reality, holography, artificial intelligence, architectural mapping — are put at the service of Elizabethan texts, creating experiences that could not have existed in any other era.

Innovations installations occupy special spaces in the center of Craiova — historical buildings, squares, architectural facades. Mapping on the historical buildings in the civic center is one of the most photographed attractions of the festival. Projections on the facade of the National Theatre transform the night into a permanent spectacle, visible from hundreds of meters away.