While the competition section will be limited to Slovenian plays, theatre outfits from four European countries will be on hand to perform in the accompanying programme.

Plays from Croatia, Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic will be featured at the event that will held as part of this year's European Capital of Culture.

The festival will open with its first ever music-theatre coproduction "When the mountain changed its clothing" directed by renowned German composer and director Heiner Goebbels and featuring a performance by Slovenian girls' choir Carmina Slovenica.

Meanwhile, the competition section, in which theatres compete for Slovenia's top prizes in the field, was selected by theatre critic Primož Jesenko among 105 plays put on by theatres around Slovenia in the last season.

In choosing the programme, Jesenko said he had focused on theatre production from the perspective of change, and included a wide range of genres representing all that is present, even if it is presented in a way that is not yet established.

List of competing plays in alphabetical order:

"Class Enemy" inspired by Nigel Williams performed by Slovensko mladinsko gledališče
"The Conference of the Birds" by Jean-Claude Carriere performed by SNG Maribor
"The Dangerous Liaisons" by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos performed by SNG Maribor
"Danton's Death" by Georg Büchner performed by Slovensko mladinsko gledališče and Mestno gledališče Ptuj
"Everyman" by Iztok Mlakar performed by SNG Nova Gorica and Gledališče Koper
"Feast" by Simona Semenič performed by Zavod Imaginarni
"MandićMachine" by Marko Mandić and Bojan Jablanovec performed by Via negativa and SNG Drama Ljubljana
"The Noble Glembays" by Miroslav Krleža performed by SNG Drama Ljubljana
"Red" by John Logan performed by SNG Drama Ljubljana
"The Storm" by Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky performed by Mestno gledališče ljubljansko
"Three Sisters" by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov performed by Prešernovo gledališče Kranj
"Tristan and Isolde" inspired by Jean Cocteau performed by Mini teater