Roma Heroes 2026
8th Roma Heroes – International Theater Festival
It’s time to move beyond Roma jokes and reclaim the weapon of humor! Roma people often turn to laughter to cope with the everyday challenges they face. In most theaters, however, humor is still merely a servant of drama. At the 8th Roma Heroes International Theater Festival, we are breaking with this tradition. This year, we are setting the narrative of victimhood aside and we are going to laugh.
In May 5-9.th 2026 the Roma Heroes Festival will once again be co-organized by the Eötvös10 Cultural House. On the final two days programs continue at the Ferencvárosi Pinceszínház. . At both venues, we welcome visitors with special stand-up and monodrama performances, exhibitions, performances, musical programs and meet-and-greets.
Performers from the UK, Germany, Italy, Romania, as well as local Roma and Traveller artists will take the stage at both venues. They share their traumas and joys through their own stories, while also raising important questions about our common world. These productions don’t ask for permission to say what many prefer to keep silent. These personal stories are true, and for that very reason, they are liberating. .
More than a dozen European Romani theater artists make us laugh through stand-up performances and satirical monodramas, while revealing their own stories and holding up a distorted mirror to the world we live in. As the playwright D.W. Griffith once said: “The source of humor is not happiness, but pain.”
We believe that being courageous enough to face our difficulties, talk about them, and even joke about them, is an important step toward overcoming them.
The performances will be shown in their original languages with Hungarian and English subtitles, followed by a Q&A session. The festival program is complemented by concerts, because music - just as laughter - gives us plenty of strength to put our burdens aside for a little while!
The festival is co-funded by the European Union.
The event's main organizer is the Independent Theater Hungary.
Co-organizers are Eötvös10 Cultural House and Ferencvárosi Pinceszínház
Program
Giuvlipen Theater Company (Romania)
Get up, Roma!
Eötvös10 House of Culture, Budapest, Eötvös u. 10.
2026. May the 5th - 19:00
Performers
About
In the Romanian performance Giuvlipen Theatre Company, humor becomes a tool of resistance and a platform for self-expression, cultural pride, and political commentary. It is a celebration of the diversity of identities, questioning the ruling order, and a call to rethink who gets to tell the joke and who has been the target of jokes for too long. This kind of humor is not for the weak. The experienced audience knows that this Romanian group has never been known for being subtle or compromising. Why would their stand-up night be any different? The jokes hit hard, they offend, but they also liberate, while helping you rise above. Come and experience it with us!
Runtime: 100 mins (no intermission)
The performance is not recommended for those under the age of 16.
Edina Tallér and Csaba Gerner (Hungary)
Evilface
Eötvös10 House of Culture, Budapest, Eötvös u. 10.
2026. May 6th - 19:00
Artists
Writer: Edina Tallér
Performer: Csaba Gerner
About
Winner of the Stand Up Roma competition by Trafó and Independent Theater Hungary.
A performance that lies somewhere between stand-up comedy and monodrama, in which an actor uses his own stories to show how stage characters are constructed. The scenes are both playful and thought-provoking, shedding light on how we see each other and what we project onto others.
Don't you think it's funny when they call you a gypsy in the morning and a skinhead in the evening?
Runtime: 70 min (no intermission)
Giuvlipen Társulat (Románia) - Mihaela & Nico Rap
Eötvös10 House of Culture, Budapest, Eötvös u. 10.
2026. May 6th, 2026.-21.00
Freestyle Arena – where rap meets the “here and now”
Eötvös10 House of Culture, Budapest, Eötvös u. 10.
May 6th, 2026.-22.00
Performers
Mihaela & Nico Rap:Nicoleta Ghiță, Mihaela Drăgan
Freestyle Arena – where rap meets the “here and now”:
Lucia Lakatos, Abigail Merina C, Kálódzséró, Hassza, Beatbull
About
Mihaela & Nico Rap:
The concert weaves together the personal and the political, reflecting on the lived experiences of contemporary Roma women. The songs function both as a mirror and a lighthouse: they shed light on the realities of patriarchal violence, capitalism, and racism that shape everyday life, while also offering visionary narratives of resistance and liberation.
Freestyle Arena – where rap meets the “here and now”
This is a live event. It’s not a concert. Five MCs take the stage to show you what it’s brilliant like when rap is born right in front of your eyes, not scripted in advance.
No script, no safety net. The audience provides the topic—we react instantly.
We throw lines at each other, build off each other, and carry each other forward. The flow goes round and round, the energy builds, and each round takes us in a different direction. What’s said here is unique and unrepeatable. Raw energy, humor, jabs, thoughts, intellect—everything is welcome. Rap returns to where it came from: to the people.
If you’ve got a word, a topic, or just a feeling — throw it in. We’ll show you what freestyle can do with it.
Rudi Forgács (Hungary)
Gypsy, but cool
Eötvös10 House of Culture, Budapest, Eötvös u. 10.
2026. May 07th, 2026 - 18.00
Performers
About
Winner of the Stand Up Roma competition by Trafó and Independent Theater Hungary.
Everyone has heard—and perhaps even said—about someone that “he’s Gypsy, but cool!” Rudi has heard it too. About himself. These three words, meant as a compliment, hold surprisingly deep implications on both a personal and social level. What impact do these three words have? What does it take to overcome our prejudices, and can we ever fully overcome them?
Runtime: 70 mins (no intermission)
Kristóf Horváth (Hungary)
Gypsy Solitude
Eötvös10 House of Culture, Budapest, Eötvös u. 10.
2026. May 07th, 2026 - 20.00
Performer
About
Winner of the Stand Up Roma competition by Trafó and Independent Theater Hungary.
Kristóf Horváth, known to many as “Actor Bob,” explores the social and personal aspects of shame in his stand-up performance. It is both entertaining and deeply confrontational: using humor and irony, he calls out typical situations that reveal the insecurities and fears behind social prejudices. A “Gypsy Window-Giraffe”—an easily understandable dictionary for coexistence, where the Roma perspective is not the goal, but a tool for a shared journey of self-discovery.
Runtime: 80 mins (no intermission)
Béla Váradi (United Kingdom)
I Didn’t Mean to Be a Minority Today
Ferencvárosi Pinceszínház,
Budapest, Török Pál u. 3.
2026. May 8th, 2026 -18:00
Performer
About
The performance is a live process unfolding in time, exploring through personal stories, images, and presence what it means to be visible.
Fragmented visual and sonic materials from my previous works appear within the space, constructing not a linear narrative, but rather a layering of experiences—resting on the threshold between presence and absence.
During the performance, I work and create within the space: the process itself becomes visible, rather than a pre-fixed form. I am not playing a role; I am simply present.
The emphasis is not on representation, but on connection: that subtle, often elusive space where personal experience meets the viewer’s attention." - Béla Váradi
Is there anything besides the creative flow that can help Béla fulfill his desire for freedom?
The project is being assisted by first-year students of the MKE's curatorial studies program.
Riah Knight (Germany)
Lie with me
Ferencvárosi Pinceszínház,
Budapest, Török Pál u. 3.
2026. May 8th, 2026.-20:00
Artists
Director: Katharina Stoll
Performer: Riah Knight
About
Riah Knight is a British-Romani artist based in Berlin whose practice spans acting, music, writing, and dramaturgy. Raised around the UK Romani activist movement, she developed a keen political awareness from a young age, and continues to engage in activism through her art.
Glossy Pain takes the audience to bed in their comedic one-woman show. How can we be vulnerable with each other, when the world around us demands us to be hard? How can we expect others to be honest, if we're not even honest with ourselves?
Teasing and tormenting both herself and the audience, Riah Knight questions the authenticity of performance, seeking answers from religious and mythical figures.
With a characteristic blend of humour and introspection and featuring original music, this English-language solo promises to ignite discussion. Come lie with us!
A production by Glossy Pain and Berlin TD Theatre.
Warning:
The performance is sexually explicit and deals with religion in a provocative manner. Recommended for ages 16 and up.
Runtime: 50 mins (no intermission)
Rampa Prenestina (Italy)
Uncertain Identities
Ferencvárosi Pinceszínház,
Budapest, Török Pál u. 3.
2026. May 09th,2026 - 18.00
Artists
Performers: Gemila Durmis, Mattia Alberghetti, Erik Nikolic, Sasha Serio, Giulia Massimini, Nedzad Husovic
Artistic Direction: Giulia Massimini, Sebastian Spinella
About
"Hi! Where are you from?
Are you Bosnian? Serbian? Macedonian? Ukrainian?
I don’t know… maybe… I think I’m Italian.
Are you Roma? … Roman!”
Stand-up comedy from here and there, from the suburbs and everywhere.
If you feel like a strange creature, come check us out!
Independent Theater Hungary
Who laughs last?
Ferencvárosi Pinceszínház,
Budapest, Török Pál u. 3.
2026. May 09th,2026 - 20.00
Performers
Contributors: Éva Tímea Bogya, Edina Dömök, Emília Boda-Novy
About
Stand-up is mainly a male genre—but what are we to do when the girls of Independent Theater Hungary are tougher than anyone else? Four “harmless” chicks set the stage on fire as they win over every heart with playful ease and leave every abdominal muscle aching. Once they open their mouths and the words start pouring out, we might just have to rethink the concept of harmlessness.
Performers: Balogh Orsolya, Farkas Ramóna, Lakatos Lucia és Merina C. Abigail
Runtime: 80 mins (no intermission)
Riah Knight (Germany)
Solo concert by Riah Knight
Ferencvárosi Pinceszínház,
Budapest, Török Pál u. 3.
2026. MAy the 9th - 22.00
About
The 8th Roma Heroes Festival will come to an end with a solo concert by actor, singer and songwriter Riah Knight. During the concert, the Hungarian audience will be entertained by both her previous works and her new composition.
Known for blending R&B, folk, trip-hop, and performance poetry in her music, her concert at Roma Heros finds her in quieter territory — layered, acoustic, and unhurried. Her vocals, characterised by evocative lyrics and a laid-back, sultry delivery, take on something more expansive when looped; folky and a little otherworldly, drawing on the Indian concept of the drone — a sustained, meditative foundation from which melody finds its shape.
An artist photo for the concert: photo credit Odelia Toder / Edit Riah Knight
