Between June 27th and August 25th 2024, the 70th edition of the Mérida International Classical Theater Festival will take place. Jesús Cimarro is leading the management and direction through the company Pentación Espectáculos, just like the last 12 editions. This year, we celebrate the 70th edition of the Festival with 9 shows in the program of the Roman Theater of Mérida, of which 7 are premieres, and the extensions will be repeated again at the María Luisa Theater in Mérida and in the cities of Madrid, Medellín, Regina and Cáparra with a total of 20 shows.
On this occasion, the Festival will open on June 27th and 29th with an opera: Medea, a co-production of the Festival with the Teatro Real, conducted by Paco Azorín and musical direction by Andrés Salado (Orquesta de Extremadura). This play will be the debut of the Teatro Real at the Mérida Festival.
From July 3rd to 7th , comedy will come from the hand of a Festival production with the Extremaduran company Verbo Producciones, with a version by Florián Recio on The Appearance of Menander.
Rafael Álvarez “El Brujo” returns to the Mérida Festival from July 10th to 14th, with Icons or the Exploration of Destiny, which, in the words of the author himself, “could be considered the third part of a trilogy formed by Aeschylus, Birth and Death of Tragedy and The Gods and God”, which also premiered at the Festival.
A version by Francisco Nieva of Aristophanes’ La Paz, from Aristophanes from July 17th to 21th, celebrates the 100th anniversary of the writer’s birth and will be directed by Rakel Camacho.
Closing the July programme at the Teatro Romano, Roberto Enríquez will star alongside Carmen Conesa, Alex Barahona, Juan Díaz and María Ordóñez from July 24th to 28th in Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, adapted and directed by Antonio Simón.
Victoria Abril will premiere at the Roman Theatre in Mérida starring in a version of Medusa from July 31st to August 4th and from August 7th to 11th. The great performer will take the stage together with Natalia Millán, Adrián Lastra and Ruth Lorenzo, directed by José María del Castillo.
Dance will also be present in this 70th edition with Blanca Li’s Ballet and her show Dido and Eneas, which will be performed on August 6th at the Roman Theater.
The August line-up will continue with Eusebio Poncela, Óscar de la Fuente and Ana Fernández starring in Tiresias from August 14th to 18th directed by Carlota Ferrer, in a co-production between Draft.inn Producciones and the Mérida Festival.
Finally, to close the program of the Teatro Romano, Ifigenia will arrive from August 21st to 25th with María Garralón and Juanjo Artero directed by Eva Romero in this co-production of the Festival de Mérida and Maribel Mesón.
In this third edition of the Mérida Festival program at the María Luisa Theater, a total of 7 shows will be hosted: Monsters. The Prodigy of the Gods (July 6th), a production by Prodigio Teatro directed by David Boceta and dramaturgy by Aurora Parrilla; Coriolano (July 13th) directed by Emilio del Valle, a production by Inconstantes Teatro; Barabbas (July 20th), directed by Armando del Río; Lisístrata Montoya (July 27th), a show by Gitanas A Escena; Cassandra (July 28th), a chamber opera with text by Iñigo Guardamino and María Herrero; and, finally, to close the programme of the María Luisa Theatre, on 3 August there will be a version of Oedipus Rex by the Bambalina Teatre Company (Valencia) and, on August 4th, Elektra 25, a production by the Atalaya Company, directed by Ricardo Iniesta.
In the same way, we will once again have the Festival’s programme in its official extensions of Madrid, Cáparra, Medellín and Regina, which host productions that were a great success during their time at the Roman Theatre in Mérida in the last 69th edition: Salomé, The Comedy of Errors, The Assemblymen, The Titans. Fury of the Gods and The Gift of Zeus. In addition, we recover Oedipus by Teatre del Temple from the last extension of the María Luisa Theatre and, with the help of the ONCE, a new show will arrive at the Regina extension: an adaptation of Plautus’ classic, Miles Gloriosus.
This year we will enjoy again with numerous and different activities such as courses, exhibitions and workshops, children’s and family proposals, such as the Dionisio parade and the storytelling of Heroes and Heroines, which will be held in different spaces of the city of Merida, and even the world, such as the exhibition Theatrum Mundi that will take the name of the Mérida Festival to New York on this occasion.
In addition, the Festival will once again be accessible, with audio-described, subtitled, magnetically looped and amplified performances with headphones at the Roman Theatre and its other venues.
While last year we celebrated the 90th anniversary of the inauguration of the Mérida Festival in 1933, this year we celebrate the 70th edition in which the imaginary curtain of the Roman Theatre of Mérida has been raised so that hundreds of shows inspired by the most classic Greco-Roman comedies and tragedies can be represented on its millenary stones. With this program, we invite the public to travel to the heart of the theater: Mérida.