2025 Aranya Theater Festival Opens with Theme "Sensibility and Sense"
The 2025 Aranya Theater Festival, themed "Sensibility and Sense," will be held in Aranya from June 19 to 29, 2025.
"Half seawater, half theater" - the Aranya Theater Festival has always been committed to building a platform that showcases the landscape of world theater. Starting from aesthetics, society and nature, it rides the wave of contemporary theater trends and drives international cultural dialogue.
This year, 16 cutting-edge works from 13 countries and regions around the world, along with 13 distinctive and diverse contemporary Chinese productions, will gather again by the seaside of Aranya. Presented through eight major theater matrices, the festival will display a panorama of trendsetting theater, reconstructing the contemporary landscape of international theater through theater drama, dance theater, absurd theater, physical theater, sound theater, puppet theater, interactive theater and material theater - demonstrating how theater flows globally without borders.
The festival brings together 40 Chinese and international directors who will present 94 performances across 15 theater spaces. Together with the sun, moon, wind, rain and waves, they will transcend traditional theater spaces, overlook all phenomena, and continue writing the contemporary chapter of theatrical civilization.
The festival's four opening and closing productions - Dom Juan, Classic Love, May B, and Thanks for Being Here - represent the Aranya Theater Festival's observations on current international theater aesthetic trends from perspectives of artistic scholarship, contemporary sentiments and evolving audience-performer relationships. They also embody the festival's unique theater culture of "interactive symbiosis between art and nature." The artistic language of theater, universal human themes, and experimental explorations resonate with natural landscapes and architectural spaces, painting a vast picture that extends beyond the stage, completing the transformation from theater to life, the present moment, and spirituality.
Additionally, the most creatively spirited Migratory Birds 300 will return as scheduled in the Migratory Birds Sand City. 300 creators will collectively embark on 300 hours of boundless co-creation, allowing art to be born-grow-migrate on the seaside beach. The Future Theater SHOWCASE will recruit theater works from 9 groups of professional young creators this year for performances over four days. The 37°2 Environmental Script Readings will present multiple brand-new, never-before-staged dramatic texts and avant-garde artistic works closely tied to this year's theme "Sensibility and Sense," exploring elements of society, emotion, family and women. Various seaside public art activities will also spread thoughtful encounters along the coastline and throughout Aranya's diverse architecture.