Edinburgh among European festivals to collaborate on new play

A man sitting at a table with a woman standing beside him. There are glasses containing water on the table and a stack of papers. The man has dark hair and a beard and is wearing a dark blazer over a dark shirt. He is leaning slightly forward with his arms resting on the table. The woman has short, curly hair and is wearing glasses. She is dressed in a white shirt and a tan waistcoat and trousers. Edinburgh International Festival/Caio Lírio

A Trial - after an Enemy of the People - will be staged at the Edinburgh International Festival, Holland Festival and Festival D'Avignon next summer

Pauline McLean
Scotland arts correspondent

Three major European arts festivals - including Edinburgh - will collaborate for the first time on a new stage show for their 2026 programmes.

A Trial - after an Enemy of the People - will be staged at the Edinburgh International Festival, Holland Festival and Festival D'Avignon next summer as the first part of a three-year collaboration.

The show is a continuation of the classic Ibsen play, relocated to a modern courtroom where audiences will be asked to vote on the outcome.

It will be created by Brazilian director Christiane Jahaty and actor Wagner Moura. Moura is best known for his depiction of Pablo Escobar in Netflix's Narcos for which he has been nominated for a Golden Globe.

His most recent film The Secret Agent, won multiple awards at the Cannes Film Festival, including Best Actor.

A woman sitting crying at a table with a man crouching down beside her with his arm on her back. There are glasses containing water on the table as well as a notebook, papers and the woman's glasses. The man has dark hair and a beard and is wearing a dark blazer over a dark shirt. The woman has short, curly hair and is dressed in a white shirt and a tan waistcoat and trousers. Her face is scrunched up showing her distress. Edinburgh International Festival/Caio Lírio

The Ibsen play, starring actor Wagner Moura (left), has relocated to a modern courtroom where audiences will be asked to vote on the outcome

Roy Luxford, creative director of the Edinburgh International Festival, says the three festivals have been talking about collaborating for several years.

"We started to consider what international collaboration meant, post Covid, and from a UK perspective, feeling the impact of Brexit and being outside of our European partners," he says.

"We were all fairly new to our positions and discovering the history that we were all founded in 1947, and understood that arts and culture could be incredible for reconciliation but also for provocations."

The Holland Festival takes place in June, the Festival D'Avignon in July and the Edinburgh International Festival in August so the collaboration allows shared production costs and a performance timescale that suits everyone.

"International touring is really difficult in current times so for three significant festivals to all declare their ability to present a piece of work is a very powerful statement," Roy says.

"We are near neighbours and our dates align so it's a sustainable proposition."

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    The Berliner Philharmoniker will return to Edinburgh International Festival next summer

The show is one of four flagship productions being announced by Edinburgh International Festival.

The Berliner Philharmoniker will return to Edinburgh next summer, as will San Francisco Ballet which will perform the European premiere of its work Mere Mortals.

Zurich Opera House will also present the UK production premiere of Verdi's A Masked Ball with two separate casts alternating in the Edinburgh Festival Theatre.

It is presented as part of the Anderson Opera series which is made possible by two long-term festival supporters, James and Morag Anderson.

The full programme for the 2026 Edinburgh International Festival, which takes place between 7 and 30 August, will be revealed in March next year.

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