Damned be the traitor of his homeland!

With Primož Bezjak, Olga Grad, Uroš Kaurin, Boris Kos, Uroš Maček, Draga Potočnjak, Matej Recer, Romana Šalehar, Dario Varga, Matija Vastl

Yugoslavia was devoured by civil war and chopped up into a handful of wounded national states. Oliver Frljić leads an explicitly humanist discourse about love and hate towards theatre, presenting a manifesto where private dramas and historical dramas are interwoven. This is theatre of combat where killings multiply in a ritual that is a clear reminder that the land is still damp with the blood of thousands of victims.

A forceful look at individual responsibility, the play is performed by a cast of Balkan actors. Extreme pain and suffering, immoderate joy, unchecked hatred, tears beyond measure – everything is heightened. But the spirit of the piece is not so much theatrical illusion as blunt clarity. The actors use wartime and political traumas to ask universal questions: about the boundaries of artistic and social freedom, individual and collective responsibility, tolerance and stereotypes.

With reference to stereotypes and other general viewpoints of recent history, Frljić’s »theatre-reality« targets the notion of identity and the sense of belonging, as well as the clichés these invoke. He lays bare the ambiguities nestling at the heart of collective memory, between reality and fiction. With this forceful show about the trauma of the Yugoslav tragedy, a political farce in which music and the cheerful conversations hide a darkly humorous malaise, Frljić holds up an unsettling mirror to his actors, audience and theatre itself.
 

Mit freundlicher Unterstützung des Slowenischen Kulturzentrums Berlin

Festival: War or Peace - Crossroads of History 1918 / 2018

Fotos: Nada Žgank, Žiga Koritnik