Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

The 26th edition of the International Mime Art Festival lies ahead of us. After the jubilee, 25th edition, which offered an opportunity for reflection, memories and a look back at a quarter of a century of mime art in Warsaw, we return with a programme open to the future of this extraordinary field of theatre.

Last year's edition reminded us how broad and ambiguous the concept of pantomime is today. It is no longer only classical technique, the precision of gesture and the illusion of the invisible object. It is also physical theatre, visual theatre, storytelling built through image, movement, rhythm, silence, the matter of the stage and the imagination of the audience. This diversity remains one of the most important hallmarks of our Festival.

This year's programme once again invites you to meet artists who go beyond the boundaries of words and create theatre based on presence, the body, image and the relationship with space. We will see performances full of poetic precision, visual richness, humour, melancholy and surprising emotional power. Different stage languages, different traditions and different ways of thinking about the art of mime will meet here: from masterfully composed images, through theatre of objects and forms, to an intense, physical encounter between actor and audience.

The 26th International Mime Art Festival continues the path we have followed for years: presenting pantomime as a living, contemporary and constantly searching art form. An art that can be both light and profound, funny and moving, intimate and spectacular. An art that does not need many words to speak about what matters most.

We invite you to join us on a journey through theatre beyond words. To meet artists who think with the body, compose with silence and build worlds through movement, light, gesture and presence.

Bartłomiej Ostapczuk
Artistic Director of the Festival

The Festival is organised by the Warsaw Mime Centre Foundation, with the Ursynów Cultural Centre "Alternatywy" serving as both the venue and co-organiser of this theatrical celebration.

Tickets on sale from: 7 July 2026