This May 2025 we will take the theater to defend diversity. We will go on stage to break the fear and hatred towards the different, to bring out our voice and embody the struggle for human rights.

We are artists, yes! Combative, yes! Art is our language, our way of transforming the story, of trying out new directions, of building together the future we dream of. That is why, from May 27 to 31, we will get together again and rethink alternative realities from the TOMA Teatro European Meeting.

A safe space to face, through the Theater of the Oppressed, those speeches that paralyze us, that threaten our freedoms, that oppress us and make us invisible. A community meeting to get out of the normalized state of shock in which they want us to be; to free us from the cascade of oppressions that this system is establishing via tweet; and to distance us from the abyss to which a model based on wars, speculation with life and exacerbated profit is leading us.

A system against which we can rebel, we want to rebel and we rebel. Because our memory reminds us of the power of collective disobedience and we know that only together we can sustain the struggle for human rights. Because being neutral is not an option. It never has been. Even less today, when old offensives that seek to muzzle the social freedoms we have been recovering are resurfacing.

We do not want to “surf” the racist, lgtbiaq+phobic, chauvinist, and ableist wave we are facing. We want to dismantle it, entering the ocean of art and activism. To build new forms of expression from which to address the social struggle. To dive into the theater to rehearse and embody possible strategies of rebellion against anti-human rights discourses. We want to plot the twist.

In this 4th edition of TOMA Teatro we will share experiences and strategies that are being applied in the Theater of the Oppressed in different environments and contexts around the world, with a common idea: to generate and strengthen local support networks from which to confront the neoliberal and fascist offensive we are facing.

It will be 5 days in which we will work, from art, in the identification and revision of our story; we will approach our utopias from empathy and care; we will celebrate each step, each small contribution as essential; to continue walking together in these hard times. Join the TOMAnifesto and take action!