As the festival is this year coupled with Maribor's stint as the culture capital, it will be the biggest so far, according to the organisers.

Like every year, the culmination will be the handing out of the Borštnik Ring, a life-time achievement award for actors, named after Ignacij Borštnik (1858-1919), the vanguard of Slovenia's theatre. Last year the award went to actress Milada Kalezić.

In the competing programme, twelve productions will compete for the country's top theatre awards for best play, best director, best actor and for other artistic achievements.

Theatre critic Primož Jesenko selected the programme out of 105 plays put on by theatres around Slovenia in the last season.

While the competition section will be limited to Slovenian plays, the accompanying programme will feature eleven Slovenian and seven foreign productions, staged by theatre outfits from Croatia, Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic.

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.