HUNGARY L!VE FESTIVAL Returns To NYC September 3–7
La MaMa, Nublu, and Brooklyn venues host theater, dance, concerts, film, visual arts, and culinary events.
The Hungary L!ve Festival will return to New York City from September 3–7, 2025, bringing some of the most compelling voices in Hungary’s contemporary arts scene to U.S. audiences. Organized by the Hungary Live Foundation, this marks the third edition of the festival in New York and will feature a dynamic mix of theater, dance, visual arts, music, film, and community-based events across Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Anchored by four innovative productions at La MaMa Experimental Theater Club, the festival also includes a visual art exhibition, live performances, concerts, and a film screening, alongside immersive culinary and community programs. This year’s edition emphasizes cross-cultural dialogue, showcasing Hungarian creators—many appearing in the U.S. for the first time—while forging connections with American audiences and institutions.
The festival launches on September 3 with a celebratory opening at Dobbin Mews and TBSP Studio in Brooklyn, featuring the unveiling of visual art exhibitions, live performance acts, music, and an introduction to the artists participating in this year’s events.
Highlights of the La MaMa program include Jakab Tarnóczi and Zsófia Varga’s Lonely Lives (September 4–5), a contemporary adaptation of Gerhart Hauptmann’s classic play; Erika Marozsán’s Enemies of the People (September 6), a drama inspired by Kati Marton’s novel; Beatrix Trisha Simkó and Zoltán Grecsó’s haunting dance work #ORPHEUS#EURYDICE (September 6–7); and a staged reading of Csaba Székely’s 10 (September 7), a crime drama woven from stories tied to the Ten Commandments. Performances include English, Hungarian with subtitles, and non-verbal works, broadening accessibility for international audiences.
Brooklyn hosts a robust program of visual arts curated by Emese Mucsi and performance art curated by Anna Boros. Highlights include Máté Bartha’s Anima Mundi exhibition, which blends real and staged photography into surreal urban landscapes; Fruzsina Nagy and Lili Stern’s Pain Killer, a dance performance exploring how humans live with pain; and András Böröcz’s Palettes, which combines sculpture, installation, and live performance. A group exhibition, Lives and Works in New York and Budapest, explores the creative output of artists navigating life between two cities.
Additional Brooklyn programming includes Csilla Radnay and Ádám Móser’s Play Klezmer concert, Martin Boross’s satirical film Raw Material, Vilmos Vajdai’s immersive piece In-Between, and Now, As Poetry Is Making a Comeback from Radnóti Miklós Theatre and Ördögkatlan Festival, featuring actor András Pál and cellist Tamás Rozs. A participatory culinary event, Goulash Extravaganza, will bring audiences together through cooking and storytelling.
On September 4, Hungarian multimedia artist OIEE (Bence Kocsis) will perform a late-night concert at Nublu, blending house, breakbeat, and experimental sounds with material from his new album.
All festival events are free, with advance registration required at hungarylivefestival.com.
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A Tom Lehrer Cabaret The Green Room 42 (7/29-7/29) |
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Broadway Magic Hour Broadway Magic Hour: Magic Show (7/25-1/02) |
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Broadway Takes On The 80s The Cutting Room (9/14-9/14) |
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Fool for Love Vino Theater (8/06-8/08) |
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Oil & Whiskey The Bitter End, Laurie Beechman, Prohibition, The Rat NYC (7/15-8/12) |
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Rock Never Dies Hard Rock Cafe (5/29-8/30) |
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SAY MY NAME AMT Theatre (7/23-7/26) |
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Shangri-La-La, a comedy musical about Siegfried & Roy American Theatre of Actors (ATA) (7/25-7/26) |
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That Math Show Theater555 (6/11-8/16) |
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Shakespeare In Love Springer Opera House (4/23-5/02) |