New Theatrical Tendencies On A Hot Tin Roof - BITEF in Belgrade between September 13 and 24

(a scene from the play Prometheus Landscape II, which opens this year's BITEF)

The Belgrade International Theater Festival BITEF will be held between September 13 and 24, 2011, under the slogan New Theatrical Tendencies on a Hot Tin Roof, and one of the main innovations in this year's festival selection is the Region in Focus program, which will be part of the main program, it was announced at a press conference by co-selectors Anja Susa and Jovan Cirilov, Director of Bitef theater Jelena Kajgo, and others.

According to the words of Anja Susa, the intention is that, aside from presenting everything that is relevant on the international theater stage, this year's BITEF becomes a platform for the presentation of contemporary regional theatrical practices.

As Jovan Cirilov explained, what once was a "showcase" now under the name of Region in Focus becomes "an organic part of the main program", which creates a series of opportunities for future festivals as well. According to his words, this year's festival will be marked by "hot topics", starting from plays that literally deal with fire to the metaphorical meaning of that term, that is, reading.

This year's program includes 15 plays from 9 countries, and the festival will be opened by the play Prometheus Landscape II by Jan Fabre from Belgium. The play is inspired by the antic myth of titan Prometheus, a rebel against the supreme god and the giver of fire to mortals.

The program also includes following plays: I Apologize by young Paris director Gisele Vienne, For Moscow, For Moscow by German director Frank Kastrof, Screams About Whispers by Andrej Sherban, and I Was Heading Home, But I Did Not Enter by Heiner Gebels.

There will also be the play whose title served as inspiration for the slogan of this year's festival - Cat On A Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams, which will be directed by Ivica Buljan and performed by Mestno Gledališče Ljubljansko.