Sreten Asanović, Nomina, Plima, Ulcinj, 2011
By: Ivana Ančić
English version will be available soon.
Male-Female / Women’s-Men’s, directed by: Katarina Pejović, Boris Bakal, produced by: Bacači sjenki & Teatar &TD, Zagreb
By: Vanja Nikolić
When a play creates a gender based separation so that the audience are only men or only women, such separation is bound to continue when afterwards commenting the play at a bar or when writing its review. It is impossible to write a review on something you were not able to see. Hence, this text, as well as the one half of the Bacači sjenki’s play, is intended only for women. If you are a man, look for the man’s opinion.
The Male-Female / Women’s-Men’s project is made of two plays that are preformed separately for each gender. Hence, there are Men’s and Women’s plays and each is men only and women only plays, which in total makes four plays. The premiere(s) were performed this February and March, but the premiere performance is not very relevant in this case, because the main virtue is the actors’ and audiences’ transformance from one play into the other. At the Desire Festival in Subotica two of four plays were staged, the Men’s for Men and the Women’s for Women. I can not say what the Men’s was like, but the Women’s was emotional and touching.
Male-Female / Women’s-Men’s is the last part of the On Fellowship trilogy by the artistic group Bacači sjenki. The founders of many different art projects and experiments, director and actor Boris Bakal and playwright Katarina Pejović, as well as in their other projects, aimed to step out of the usual theatric conventions and question the most complex rules of performance. This time, they explored the interpersonal relationship, based on the men-women topics, on three levels: those between the performers, those between the performers and the audience and finally those between the performers and interaction with the audience.
All elements of the play are in the function of approaching the topics from different angles, which is the sphere of interest of the Bacači sjenki’s projects. Hence, their work could easily be called theatre events, for they do not perform in the usual places/stages, or in the usual way. In this case, the audience is on the stage, not only for a better view but because they are part of the stage. The audience is set in a circle, which gives an impression of a therapy group, or of a working atmosphere in which everyone can see each other, can listen actively and can at any moment give their support or an adequate speech. There is a table in the middle of the circle, with a lot of props, or we could say aids, that create a relationship with the audience. The actresses are in the middle of the circle, but more often all around the audience. In this way, they pull down the wall that we are used to and the boundary between the performers and the audience is erased, which leads into a completely different way of creating and watching the play.
The first means that is used in breaking the standard actress-viewer relation is that the Croatian and the Bosnian and Herzegovinian actresses Irma Alimanović, Zrinka Kušević, Jelena Miholjević, Mona Muratović and Petra Terzan use their own names and partly their own stories from which they build a narrative line of the play, that is mostly improvised, each time different and dependent on its audience. What is an obvious constant can be seen from the short script written on a few boards set in the corners of the stage, are the topical episodes and the main points. Women in their play discuss topics such as looks, imposed standards, role of a mother, being a housekeeper and a successful woman, among which there are always men and their relationships. The play has a symbolic opening with throwing of a bridle bouquet in which all the single women from the audience participate. Apart from creating a dynamic and direct introduction into what this play is all about, the women-men relationships, such a beginning also serves as an introduction to the audience, that their cooperation is expected. Unfortunately, this is what was mostly missed at the performance in Subotica.
This procedure demands an active viewer, one that will participate in creating and becoming a part of the process. If this does not happen, the play is unsuccessful and the audience has only itself to blame. The play will not be shorter, will not stop and the actresses will not give up on playing their roles till the end. Only the audience will miss out on an opportunity to make something more of this play. The key question in such interactive projects is how to show the audience that they can decide to create? In Subotica, the actresses asked questions, stated provocative attitudes, but even that was not enough. The audience failed to tell its own side of the story, but listened what the five actresses had to say, probably agreed with one of them and went home. Hence, the viewers did not change their role at the theatre, which can be a sign that they did not understand that they were not at a usual performance where they are expected to behave differently.
Maybe the authors did not want to use the ‘’safe’’ methods to open up the audience. But what did they want then? They wanted us to communicate, to create an opportunity for us to talk, to listen, to share information and emotions and to understand how we do or do not do all of these things. Hence, communication as a topic and as a means of creating the play was not working enough. The possibility that the audience does not want to participate is passively accepted by filling the two hours with pre-planned elements. A challenge for an audience that does not want to communicate would be to change the topic from the Men-Women relations to the Men-Women communication. It is interesting that the actresses did not use the obvious potential that the environment of Subotica provided for them, although at the beginning it looked as if they would. On entering the stage, all of the women got a sticker on their chest, with a mark of the language they speak. The play was preformed in Serbian language (Serbian-Croatian-Bosnian) and never was there any other reference on the additional linguistic difference (Hungarian-Serbian-English) that was made at the entrance.
The viewers get from the play only as much as they ask for. They may be presented with a tricky topic, which will make them ask more of themselves and search inside themselves. But, even when it can not be avoided, it is necessary to know for why we take over the initiative. In the Women’s for Women play, we are presented with problems that overwhelm us every time we open a lady’s magazine in which we can also find solutions to these problems. The play tries to do the same. At the end, we are overwhelmed with mutual happiness and unhappiness for being women and with that it becomes clear why we are a part of this therapeutic circle. It remains unclear that therapy is a long process if we are to achieve any result and that the intent of the play is only to raise issues that we will have to deal with in other therapeutic circles.
Sreten Asanović, Nomina, Plima, Ulcinj, 2011
By: Ivana Ančić
English version will be available soon.
OSMI I SEDMI PUTNIK, Aleksandar Bjelogrlić, Citadela, Agora, Zrenjanin, 201
By: Dalibor Plečić
English version will be available soon.
Stjepan Gulin, Paz’te sad, paz’te sad (Meandarmedia, Zagreb, 2011.)
Authors: Ivana Ančić
Igor Marojević, Kroz glavu (Dosije, Beograd, 2012.)
Author: Dalibor Plečić
Damir Miloš, Pisa. Povratak (Meandarmedia, Zagreb, 2011.)
Author: Morena Livaković
POLITIČKE I DRUŠTVENE KONSTRUKCIJE IDENTITETA U VIDEO-PERFORMANSIMA NA BEOGRADSKOJ SCENI 1970-ih
Esej Vladimira Bjeličića
Esej u celini možete pročitati na portalu SEEcult.org
Esej Tihane Bertek
Od promatrača do sudionika
GALERIJA KAPELICA I POST-JUGOSLAVENSKI BODY ART (1995–2010)
Esej – Bojan Krištofić
Esej o radovima Šejle Kamerić, Maje Bajević i Nebojše Šerića Shobe
Piše: Slađana Golijanin
ESEJ – Razvaline socijalizma kao inspiracija za muzejske eksponate Mrđana Bajića i skulpturalne dosetke Ivana Fijolića
By: Milena Milojević
Piše: Nino Kovačić
Gostujuća izvedba šibenskog HNK, Pir malograđana, prema tekstu mladog Bertolda Brechta (napisan 1919.) izvedena je po sljedećoj formuli: na Danima satire u satiričkom kazalištu Kerempuh gledamo satiričan komad. Prema reakcijama publike, bila je uspješna, ali teško se oteti dojmu da je smijeh bio formulaično zagarantiran, jer bi takav instruirani moment humora trebao zauzdati spontani smijeh. Je li se možda radilo o “malograđanskom” humoru?
Glumice i to, KNAP, Zagreb, premijera 12.5.2012.
Piše: Nino Kovačić
Glumice i to, nova predstava u zagrebačkom KNAP-u, neobičan su kazališni ‘slučaj’. Naime, predstavu su, dramaturški i režijski osmislile te, naravno, glumački ostvarile četiri mlade glumice. U trenutačnoj opće-društvenoj, pa tako i kazališnoj situaciji, kojom prijete olovni pojmovi poput recesije, prekarijata i outsourcinga (nedavno su najavljena i otpuštanja “hladnopogonskih” glumaca), one su, kako piše u najavi “nezaposlene i pune entuzijazma, odlučile su preuzeti stvar u svoje ruke i napraviti hit!”. Očito sklone postdramskom pristupu izvedbi koji se, između ostalog, bazira na ekipnoj work-in-progress metodi, izvedbenoj anti-iluziji i autoreferencijalnosti, glumice/autorice su se “trgnule” i napravile parodiju o tome kako rade predstavu, po ironičnom ključu: kad ne ide pravljenje predstave treba napraviti predstavu o tome kako se ne može raditi predstava.
“Nije život biciklo”, Biljana Srbljanović, režija: Anselm Veber, Produkcija: Šaušpilhaus Bohum, Nemačka; Sterijino pozorje 2012, selekcija Nacionalne drame i pozorišta
By: Tamara Baračkov
English version will be available soon.
„Grebanje, ili kako se ubila moja baka“, Tanja Šljivar, režija: Selma Spahić, Bosansko narodno pozorište Zenica/Bitef teatar-Hartefakt (Beograd), premijera: 7. septembar 2012. (Zenica), 11. oktobar 2012. (Beograd)
By: Tamara Baračkov
English version will be available soon.
„Sluga dvaju gospodara“, Karlo Goldoni, režija: Boris Liješević, Grad teatar Budva/Srpsko narodno pozorište Novi Sad/Narodno pozorište „Toša Jovanović“ Zrenjanin, premijera: 27. jul 2012.
By: Tamara Baračkov
English version will be available soon.