We recall Krystyna Meissner’s message from the first edition in 2001.

A new festival is emerging… What is its purpose? What kind of needs does it mean to address? How is it going to stand out among many other European festivals? Is the growing number of theatre festivals around the world a worrying sign of trying to revive a dying art form? Or could it be, on the contrary, a sign of responding to a social need for an intense experience of theatre—a way of creating a true celebration of theatre? Such questions arise ever more frequently in private conversations, at conferences, meetings, and in publications devoted to the condition of contemporary theatre. 

The world is changing at an accelerated pace, and theatre, that delicate instrument attuned to human emotions and thoughts, should reflect the anxieties of our hearts and minds. Does it, in fact, do so? 

More than ten years have passed since the shock Europe experienced after the fall of the Berlin Wall, which had divided the continent for nearly half a century. The euphoria and great hopes of that moment have gradually given way to disappointment, brought about by the difficult clash of very different experiences from the two halves of Europe. Increasingly, we see signs of indifference toward one another, and new divisions are emerging—not only economic or civilisational. Despite official policies of European unity, in reality, we are slowly turning our backs on each other. True mutual understanding proves difficult. It demands stepping beyond the boundaries of our own habits and tastes, and letting go of stereotypes in how we think and perceive the world. But is it really possible? 

This Festival is an attempt to respond to that situation: a festival of difficult dialogue, a festival of seeking answers to the questions that trouble us. Both its program—confronting the most interesting works of Polish theatre with the most engaging phenomena of European theatre—and the accompanying discussions with all the creators, as well as an international debate about the condition of contemporary theatre, are meant to serve this goal. 

It is no coincidence that the Dialog—Wrocław Festival was born in a place historically shaped by the intersection of diverse influences: Czech, Polish, German, Jewish—in a city known as Wratislavia, Breslau, Wrocław. This city has always been welcoming to artistic explorations, open to the new, and tolerant of the different. 

Krystyna Meissner 

2001 

Postscript by Mirosław Kocur (2025) 

Faithful to Krystyna Meissner’s message, we open the new edition of the Dialog—Wrocław Festival with S[T]IMULATIONS. Why? To better understand a reality that increasingly escapes rational comprehension. Theatrical simulations—often astonishingly inventive—also serve as the stimulations. They allow us to uncover strategies of world-making and expose the techniques behind false realities. They are laboratories of the present. And only in the theatre can people undergo extreme experiences without consequence. 

Mirosław Kocur 

2025