We boast with our interesting and numerous scenes – picturesque squares, churches, ancient basilica, which are all in the very heart of Old Town Budva. But that is not all we offer to our audience. Our guests are used to have at their artistic disposal the entire Municipality of Budva. For specific plays, trying to fulfill director’s artistic vision, we like to activate other venues. Beaches, convent complexes, old fortifications around Budva and authentic natural rural environment are venues we are proud to have worked on and continue to explore.
“Theatre City” was conceived as a intersection of contemporary achievements first of all theatrical, and then art, musical and literary creations, and by its program quality still confirms its prestige not just as a host to many troops and creators, but also with a quality of its production activities with which it questions authentic cultural heritage of Budva and Montenegro, and ability to implement those questions into modern models of artistic practices. The most famous plays from the production workshop of “Theatre City” (77 so far), done independently or in cooperation with renowned theatres from country and region, such as “Kanjoš Macedonović”, “False Czar Šćepan the Small”, “Waiting for Godot”, “Karolina Nojber”, “Banović Strahinja”, “Midsummer Night’s Dream”, “The Path of Jegor”, “Konte Zanović”, “Montenegrins”, “The Tempest”, “Hamlet”, “Caligula”, “Skočiđevojka”, “Don Krsto”, “La Dispute”, “Othello”, “The Cherry Orchard”, “Zorba the Greek”, “The Divine Comedy”, “The Chioggia Scuffles”, ”Caesar”, “Ghosts”, “Red”, “Autumn Sonata” etc, are with its innovative approach already recognized as plays that changed tendencies in theatre life in the region. Careful selection of visiting programs, based on choosing the best projects of the classical theatre, but also of the theatres that turned to new tendencies, is what makes this festival recognizable not just to the audience but also to the professionals in the branch. Many guest from abroad, and not just the region, are also present on this festival , just to name few; Australian “Strange Fruit”, German “Titanik”, “Volcano theatre”, “Atis teatar”, Moscow theatre “Ruben Simonov”, Theatre Roma “Parlipe”, troop from Israel “Vertigo”, Theater an der Ruhr…
Music, arts and literary program are also integral parts of “Theatre City”. In “Santa Maria in Punta”, main exhibition space, works of many artist from the region have been presented, among them are Voja Stanić, Miloš Šobajić, Slobodan Slovinić, Milorad Bato Mihailović, Dušan Otašević, Milan Cile Marinković, Stevan Luketić, Jovan Ivanović, Mustafa Skopljak, Branko Miljuša, Nikola Gvozdenović-Gvozdo, Cvetko Lainović, Pavle Pejović, Mile Skračić, Izet Alečković, Jelena Papović, Mizokami Kazamusa, Angel Korunovski, Zlatko Glamočak and many others. As Festival is also pursuing modern forms of art, some of these events were marked by performers selected by Marina Abramović, performing of Oleg Kulik, Luka Lagator, “Montenegrin Beauty” installations from by now affirmed modern Montenegrin artist such as Irena Lagator, Jelena Tomašević, Roman Đurović, Suzana Pajović Živković.
Music program was formed as a great festival within “Theatre City”. Some of the names that performed at this Festival are: Stefan Milenković, Ensemble “HortusMusicus”, Rita Kinka, Aleksandar Madžar, Choir “Collegium Musicum”, “Gasteig Trio”, Hose Luis Villa-Gomes, Ištvan Remer, Stjepko Gut Quartet, Jovan Kolundžija, Jadranka Jovanović, Alen Fraser, Marina Jashvili, “Amadinda”, Evelyn Czesla, Ensemble Theodora Baka, Javier Nunez, Viva Vox, Nemanja Radulović, Nigel and Lina Rogers, Maria Jonas, Toshinori Ozaki, Egon Mihajlović, Miroslav Tadić, Vlatko Stefanovski, Polina Osetinskaja, Vladimir Viardo, Aleksandar Rudin, Al Di Meola, Lajko Feliks, China Moses, Laibach, Bojan Suđić, Boris Kraljević, Aleksej Ljubimov and many others.
Special phenomenon of this festival is literary manifestation by the name of “Poet’s Square”, a unique meeting of literary creators and the audience. Imagined as a place of presenting new structures, poetics, methods and publishing enterprises, “Poet’s Square” gets its conclusive meaning by establishing a dialogue between the creator and interpreter with the audience, whether that be by reading text or by live dialogue. “Poet’s Square” is a proof that literary and social questions are made alive and timeless just through exchanging information. Some of the guests of the “Square” were Ronald Harwood, Joseph Konrad, Alexandar Genis, Tadeuš Ružević, Borislav Pekić, Milorad Pavić, Matija Bećković, Dušan Kovačević, Svetlana Velmar Janković, Izet Sarajlić, Stevan Raičković, Luko Paljetak, David Albahari, Svetislav Basara, Zoran Živković, Miljenko Jergović, Vladimir Pištalo, Andrzej Stasiuk, Rafael Argullol, Božo Koprivica, Dragan Radulović, Ludvig Bauer, Balša Brković, Ante Tomić, Renato Baretić, Filip David, Vida Ognjenović, Srećko Horvat, Nikola Malović, Ljubeta Labović, Amir Or, David Grossman, Mario Vargas Llosa. During the Festival many conversations with currant artist are organized, as well as round tables and scientific assemblies with subjects regarding questioning contemporary cultural-artistic creations and business models in culture sector today. “Theatre City” is also in publishing business.
Since 1994. “Theatre City” has established an award for drama creations by the name of “Theatre City”, and an award for literary creations named “Stefan Mitrov Ljubiša”.
List of winner of the award “Theatre City”: 1994. Dejan Mijač, director; 1995. Jagoš Marković, director; 1996. Vojislav Brajović, actor; 1997. Nikita Milivojević, director; 1998. Miodrag Tabački, scene-designer; 1999. Anita Mančić, actress; 2000. Branimir Popović, actor; 2001. Svetozar Cvetković, actor; 2002. not awarded; 2003. changing the concept of the award, jury- council of experts has equally assigned an award for 4 categories – for achievements in acting: Petar Božović; for artistic challenging: Suzana Pajević-Živković; for achievements in music: Roman Simović; for Mediterranean spirit: Predrag Matvejević; 2004. Tomaž Pandur, director; 2005. Dragan Mićanović, actor; 2006. Radmila Vojvodić, director; 2007. Vida Ognjenović, director; 2008. Sonja Vukićević, ballet dancer and choreographer; 2009. Nebojša Glogovac and MihailoJanketić, actors; 2010. Feliks Pašić, posthumously and Angelina Atlagić, costume-designer; 2011. Branko Cvejić, actor; 2012. Zoran Erić, composer; 2013. Jasna Đuričić, actress; 2014. Miodrag Krivokapić, actor; 2015. Varja Đukić, actress; 2016. Igor Đorđević, actor; 2017/18. Igor Vuk Torbica, director; 2019/20. Boris Liješević, director.

List of winners of “S.M.Ljubiša” award: 1994. Milorad Pavić; 1995. Matija Bećković; 1996. Dušan Kovačević; 1997. Ljubomir Simović; 1998. Joseph Konrad; 1999. Vida Ognjenović; 2000. Ronald Harwood; 2001. Jovan Hristić; 2002. Svetlana Velmar Janković; 2003. not awarded, but the award “For Mediterranean Spirit” was assigned and delivered to Predrag Matvejević; 2004. Jurij Poljakov; 2005. Dubravka Ugrešić; 2006. Čedo Vuković; 2007.Zoran Živković; 2008.Božo Koprivica; 2009. Dragan Radulović; 2010. Svetislav Basara; 2011. David Albahari; 2012. Mirko Kovač; 2013. Miljenko Jergović; 2014. Amir Or; 2015. Zuvdija Hodžić; 2016. Milisav Savić; 2017/18. Drago Jančar; 2019/20. Radoslav Petković.

Also we would like to mention our special “Award for Distinct Contribution to the Festival” which was awarded to Branislava Liješević in 2016. for the 30th edition of the Festival.

“Award for Distinct Contribution to the Festival” was given to composer Bojan Suđić in 2022.