Almagro and Almada festivals champion contemporary theatre and female talent

Spain’s Almagro Festival highlighted female creators and new works, opening with Juan Mayorga’s play “Palabra de perro,” inspired by Cervantes, and a participatory staging of Molière’s “El avaro” by the French company Tempête, which asks audiences to supply objects that become part of the performance and are later donated to a charitable cause.

Portugal’s Almada Festival, now in its 43rd edition, presented roughly twenty productions from a wide range of European makers despite tight budgets. Director Rodrigo Francisco warned that production and logistics costs have risen sharply since the pandemic, prompting a plea for greater public support, which the city mayor has pledged to consider. The programme featured an unusually high number of works drawing on Anton Chekhov, especially “The Seagull,” reflecting renewed interest in the Russian playwright.

Both festivals underscore a broader push in the Iberian cultural scene to blend classic texts with contemporary concerns such as sustainability, gender equity, and cross‑border artistic dialogue.