Short Theatre returns to Rome from 3 to 12 September 2026: ten days of contemporary performance, dance and music at the Mattatoio, Botanical Garden and across the city.

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From 3 to 12 September 2026, Rome hosts the 21st edition of Short Theatre, the international festival dedicated to contemporary creation and the performing arts. Over ten days, more than 65 events by some 40 companies and artists from Italy, Spain, France, Poland, Hungary, Algeria, Libya, Eritrea, Cameroon, Rwanda, Mexico and China take over the city. Expect a program that blends art, critical thought and politics, mapping today’s artistic geographies across the Global South and East.

The festival’s home base is La Pelanda at the Mattatoio, the former slaughterhouse turned arts hub in , with events also at Teatro India, where the festival was born twenty years ago, Teatro Vittoria, Cinema Troisi, the MACRO – Museum of Contemporary Art and the MUCIV – Museum of Civilizations

ST26 opens on 3 September (6-10 pm) in one of the city’s most enchanting settings: the in Trastevere, with a continuous flow of performances, sound rituals and site-specific interventions among the greenhouses, including Hungarian choreographer Eszter Salamon‘s celebrated Dance for Nothing (revisited), based on John Cage’s Lecture on Nothing, and the sound ritual Naturale sconosciuto by poet Mariangela Gualtieri at dusk.

Among the must-sees: Alberto Cortès‘ El corazón de Ester, a performance that will be staged only 50 times worldwide, two of them at ST26 (4-5 September, Teatro Vittoria); Chiara Bersani‘s Michel. The animals I am, which reimagines Swan Lake through three performers with disabilities; François Chaignaud & Aymeric Hainaux‘s Mirlitons, where opera singing battles beatbox (8-9 September); the Italian premiere of L’Echo by French-Algerian choreographer Nacera Belaza with actress Valérie Dréville, co-presented with Romaeuropa Festival (10-11 September, Teatro India); and Muna Mussie‘s Cinema Impero, a three-part journey through Italy’s colonial archives staged at Cinema Troisi, MUCIV and MACRO. Closing the festival on 12 September, Claudia Castellucci‘s dance piece L’Infinito Carnale.

Throughout the festival, DJs and live acts — from queer scene icon HABIBITCH to Chinese experimental artist otay:onii — soundtrack the evenings at La Pelanda, alongside free talks and workshops open to all.

INSPIRATION

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