The Avignon OFF 2025 Festival, one of the world’s most prominent performing arts events, and the Craiova International Shakespeare Festival (FISC) 2026, the world’s most important thematic festival dedicated to the English Bard, partner for Shakespeare Of(f) Avignon, a one-off international theatrical collaboration, promoting the universal legacy of the famed playwright, the ‘Marin Sorescu’ National Theater in Craiova announced.

Under this initiative, two shows from the Avignon OFF 2025 program will be invited to the official FISC 2026, the place where for 30 years now, theater lovers and professional audiences have been discovering the Shakespearean universe as rendered by the world’s greatest artists. The performances will be selected by the actors from the Shakespeare Everywhere theater dissemination caravan and, respectively, by the foreign and French press from the 18 productions inspired from William Shakespeare’s works presented this summer in Avignon.

The 2025 Festival d’Avignon, now in its 79th year, runs from July 5 to 26, turning the French medieval city into a lively cultural scene with hundreds of daily performances in theaters, courtyards and unconventional spaces. This is where on July 22, 23 and 24 the Shakespeare Everywhere Caravan invites the audiences to its Shakespeare Gallery: Itinerant Sonnets, a French-language show, a delicate and moving artistic experience that reveals the beauty of Shakespeare’s sonnets.

The official event dedicated to Shakespeare Of(f) Avignon will take place on July 25, at the Village du OFF, in the form of a press conference attended by OFF Avignon Co-director Harold David, and FISC President Vlad Dragulescu.

Shakespeare Of(f) Avignon brings into the limelight the universality of Shakespeare’s works in a contemporary, accessible and relevant setting, in a landmark for the European cultural dialogue, strengthening the connection between two of the most influential theatre festivals in the world. At the same time, the initiative underlines the strength of the bond between Romania and France, highlighting the deep affinities between the two cultural spaces and reaffirming the importance of bilateral partnerships in promoting European values through art.

A unique cultural and educational initiative to promote FISC, organized by the ‘Marin Sorescu’ National Theatre in Craiova and the Shakespeare Foundation, the Caravan benefits from the financing of the Ministry of Culture and NEPI Rockcastle, as the main sponsor. The trip to France is supported by Rotary Probitas Craiova and the French Institute of Romania – Timisoara branch.

The Shakespeare Everywhere Caravan project unfolds under the High Patronage of British ambassador to Romania Giles Matthew Portman.