The Freedom Theatre Festival is an international theatre festival that brings together artists working in contexts where freedom of expression is shaped by different social and political realities.

In many places, theatre remains one of the few spaces where complex or sensitive experiences can be shared publicly. This also makes it a fragile space.

The festival focuses on contemporary theatre and performance that engages with questions of power, memory, identity, and resistance. Many of the works draw on documentary material — personal testimonies, archival sources, and lived experience.

The programme is curated through ongoing research and travel. The curators follow developments in different regions and select works directly, building each edition step by step.

Recent editions of the festival have brought together artists from a wide range of countries.

In 2025, the programme included artists from Ukraine, Pakistan, Türkiye, Georgia, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Estonia.
In 2023, participating artists came from Uzbekistan, Chile, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Estonia, and Ukraine.
In 2021, the festival presented work from Poland, Hungary, Romania, Tajikistan, and Russia/Austria.

Narva

Narva is the home of the festival — a city shaped by its position at the meeting point of different cultures, languages, and histories. For centuries, it has stood at the crossroads of shifting borders and political realities, where different worlds have met, overlapped, and at times confronted one another. This layered history is still present in everyday life. Today, Narva remains a place where questions of identity, language, and belonging are tangible rather than abstract.

The productions will be performed in different places in Narva. The heart of the festival is the Vaba Lava Narva Theatre Centre at Linda 2.

The organiser

The festival is organised by Vaba Lava, an independent theatre and performing arts centre operating in Tallinn and Narva.

Its work is centred on creative freedom, experimentation, and international collaboration. Vaba Lava develops its programme in dialogue with contemporary social processes, often bringing topical and documentary-based works to the stage. See more here : www.vabalava.ee

GalLERY

Vabaduse Festival 2025: GALERII

Vabaduse Festival 2023: GALERII

Vabaduse Festival 2021: GALERII