Viewing posts from: vanja nikolic

26.12.2011.

THE MELODRAMATIC SEARCH FOR IDENTITY

Igor Štiks: Elijah’s Chair, directed by Boris Liješević, produced by Jugoslov Drama Theatre and MESS

By: Vanja Nikolić

Elijahova stolica (Elijah’s Chair) premiered exactly one year ago. Created in co-production of Yugoslav Drama Theatre and Sarajevo-based MESS Festival, it lived its modest life on Yugoslav Drama Theater’s small scene. It wasn’t much written about, it was not “the hit of the season”, it wasn’t even listed for this year’s Sterijino Pozorje Festival. And then it was selected for Bitef Festival as part of the Region in Focus Program, as yet another play dealing with the heritage of history and the understanding of one’s own identity. To the surprise of many, it was exactly Elijah’s Chair that won Mira Trailović Grand Prix Award and thus earned all the attention. And so it happened that in only three years, Bitef’s main prize was twice awarded to Yugoslav Drama Theatre and its directors. First to Miloš Lolić for Sanjari (Dreamers) and now to Boris Liješević, the author of Čekaonica (The Waiting Room) produced by Atelier 212, which two years ago won the Sterijino Pozorje Special Award, and the collaborator on several projects by Tomi Janežič whose influence is visible in several plays directed in Novi Sad. more >

22.12.2011.

To love your country, there is no need for advertising?!

Patriotic Supermarket, directed by Dino Mustafić, a Kulturanova Association (Novi Sad), Multimedia Centre (Prishtina) and Bitef Theatre (Belgrade) co-production

By: Vanja Nikolić

We will understand each other! We are talking! are the sentences that are being cried out, just like slogans, at the end of Patriotic Supermarket. Bearing in mind the play premiered during another round of important, but unsuccessful negotiations between Belgrade and Prishtina, Serbia and Kosovo, Serbian politicians and the European Union, it is obvious the meaning of these words comes across as extremely ironic. The only ones who are not talking to each other on a global level are the Albanians and the Serbs, constantly finding themselves in the crossfire.

more >