As well as previous days, the last day of this year’s competition started with Biljana Đurović, actress and host of the Festival, who announced the programme and the award ceremony.

The monodrama “Product”, performed by Ivan Tomić is a one-hour talk between a producer and an actress, during which the producer tries to persuade the actress to accept a role in his new movie. The idea of the play is to portray the shallowness, lies and ’prostitution’ of the movie industry, which holds nothing sacred and uses any means possible to achieve its goal – to commercialize and twist any event into making money.

The pantomime “Tailor in the War” was performed by Đorđe Kocić, a drama student at the University of Priština. It is a short pantomime act, where the little guy fights the big system. The big system wins in the end.

Monodrama “The Day of Setting the Record Straight“ ended the competiotion programme of the 42nd Festival of Monodrama and Mime. The play is based on the relationship between poets Rade Drainac and Elisaveta Bagryana. The way in which actress Marija Đajić portrays conflicting emotions is very poetic and intriguing.

While we were waiting for the decions of the jury, we had a chance to see a mime performance called “Adam and Eve - The Seven Deadly Sins”, performed by students of the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, in the class of Nikita Milivojević. It was directed by Ivica Klemenc and the performers were Maja Čampar, Marija Feldeši, Miloš Macura, Nevena Nerandžić, Darko Radojević, Anica Petrović, Aleksa Pantić, Đorđe Mitović, Nikola Ognjen Radulović and Nikolina Vujević.

The traditional simultaneous chess game between Grandmaster Alisa Marić and festival guests and participants was held on the third festival day at the restaurant “Stara carinarnica”. Along with dramaturge Radomir Putnik, Director of the Festival, Borislav Balać and President of the Festival’s Council, Predrag Miletić, this year we were joined by a member of the expert jury, Krunislav Simić, as well as 3 children and other friend’s of the festival. Like all previous years, since the simultaneous chess game has been established as part of the festival, Alisa Marić remained undefeated..

The third day of competition was held yesterday at the Festival of Monodrama and Mime. Actress and festival host Biljana Đurović announced the plays at Theatre Carte Blanche, and then the audience took their seats.

The opening play “Overcoat” performed by Kadri Özcan, depicts the tumultuos path from childlike wonder to feeling lost to reaching self-knowledge in the end, and poses the most important question of all – Who am I? By using the dual nature of the main character which isn’t revealed till the very end, we went through stages of exploration and self-questioning leading down an expected path.

Pantomime “Imagination and Mime” by Theatre studio Nada, is the first classic pantomime act of this year’s festival. It depicts its various topics in a sweet, funny and positive way. Sanela Milošević, Igor Greksa and Vukašin Ranđelović made a successful performance which spread joy and brought a genuine smile to the audience.

The play “Esther” performed by Tatyana Khazanovsky is based on the biblical tale of Queen Esther, who according to legend saved the Jewish people from extinction thanks to her wisdom and beauty. The play features intriguing eastern music, and uses dancing as its chief way of artistic expression aside from the play’s text. Tatyana uses belly dance as the most important visual figure.

Today is the last day of the festival, and after the remaining three plays, the winner of the 42nd Festival will be announced!

The second festival day was held yesterday at Theatre “Carte Blanche“. Actress Biljana Đurović announced the plays in the theatre’s foayer, and after that the audience settled in the theatre’s hall for the beginning of the programme.

The opening play of the second night was Gogol’s “Diary of a Madman”, performed by Ozren Grabarić. The basis for this mono-opera is the exceptional and opulent music by Marjan Nećak. The music is multifaceted and complex, it overlaps with the text and directing and poses a hard task of fighting a unique and different concept in front of the equally superb Ozren Grabarić, nonetheless yielding a powerful finale. Along with numerous ‘pearl’ details, compelling singing and acting to ‘the very end’ the audience responded with a rapturous applause and shouts of ‘bravo’!

The second play in the competition programme was an audio-visual performance called “No ECOment” by Robert Rutonjić, as the title implies it is about the lack of ecological awareness making us destroy, consume and demand, with no regard to the consequences of our actions. Paired with well-chosen video and audio materials, this performance both asks and answers for us where it will all end if we follow the same path.

The third play of the second day was the monodrama “Olly Olly Oxen Free” by Jelena Puzić! It is a biographical monodrama based on the diary of Diana Budisavljević. It speaks of Diana’s heroic actions which saved between 8 000 and 10 000 children from the ustaša concentration camps in the Independent Republic of Croatia. As well as many other stories concerning the Second World War, this one is also a sad tale with a heartbreaking end. By the time the performance came to an end the audience was in tears, and the young actress received shouts of bravo. This play closed the second day of competition at the 42nd Festival of Monodrama and Mime.