The 5th International Forest Festival returns to the NTNG stages from 26 May to 15 June. This year, the city will be hosting productions from the UK, Austria, Belgium, France, Switzerland and Italy in a wide-ranging programme of performances accompanied by parallel activities, discussions and workshops led by international theatre theorists and artists. The artists' work reveals their ongoing preoccupation with issues such as the relationship between reality and technology, historical reality and the concept of progress, gender issues, issues relating to human relationships, participation and loneliness, as well as political concerns centred on the necessity of active participation and democratic practice.