NOBLE COMPETITION

This year’s selection consists of a great number of exceptional plays with different ideas and various art forms. I have tried to group them together according to their ideas and topics under the following categories:

LITERATURE AND POETRY – plays which are based on literature and poetry
In this category are prose and poetry works which have inspired authors to be creative, appealing to their artistic sensibilities. It took an artist’s touch to adapt these literary works into monodramas. From this group of excellent plays the following have been chosen to be part of the Festival:

Irfan Mensur: ACTOR, SAY SOMETHING FUNNY
This play is an account of the showdown between the small actor and the big stage and vice versa, the big actor and the small stage. A good selection of poetry is what sets this play apart, it illustrates the different emotional states of the actor,which brings him closer to the audience into a whirlwind of sadness, humour, sublime feelings – dreams filled with emotions.

Nebojša Milovanović: STAND DOWN
This multimedia performance portrays the life and work of the artist and  combines elements of documetary theatre with an excellent interpretation of well-chosen poetry. It is based on outstanding artistic expression and evokes powerful emotions from the audience.The play uses well-designed video illustrations and quality musical background.

Đorđe Kukuljica: CROATIAN GOD ON MARS
The basis for this play are motifs from the opus of Miroslav Krleža, more specifically his play In the Camp, his short story Barracks Five B, and songs Europe 1942 and Clown. The theme is – intellectual reflection of a man unhappy with the way things are in the world, and who is ready to make a new, just world in a better place, the planet Mars. However, since its name comes from the Roman God of war, it becomes a place for the actor to finally fight back with all the artistic means at his disposal. He is aided by friends through their music on his histrionic path,  uniting him with the audience in a mutual search for  answers in Krleža’s poetry.

Aleksandra Malivuk: FIRES
In this play five mythical women are depicted with all their virtues and vices (Antigone, Mary Magdalene, Phaedo, Sappho and Clytemnestra). They are on trial, even though previously tried and convicted, they are re-examined and fight to have their voices heard. The artist successfully uses all the elements of artistic expression, reinventing the past for us. The play effectively uses visual art, in the form of video recordings, which richly illustrates the artistic expression.

Ivan Perković – A POET FOR THE POETS
This monodrama is inspired by the life and work of the poet Momčilo Nastasijević. The actor leads the play with great artistic skill, intertwining the poet’s life with his work. What makes this play special is its artistic depiction of the state in society which had a pivotal role on the poet’s life and work, and gives the play a distinct value and depth. The artist managed to bridge the gap between  the distant, mysterous life of the great poet and audiences today, by exploring well-known topics such as:  love, war, creativity, family, losses, the twists and turns of fate...
Unfortunately, primarily due to limited resources, the following plays, although excellent, were not selected to be in this group – the play LAURA PLEASE by Nikola Rakočević and   I, WHO HAVE HANDS MORE INNOCENT by Vesna Tominac Matačić, from Croatia.  

’YOUTH’ PROGRAMME
This group combines the plays of young artists, mainly of an exploratory character. They were created as a required part of obtaining a Master’s Degree at their respective Academies of Art. These plays are:

Milena Živanović: EDITH PIAF
A contemporary play which uses performance art (combining acting, music, movement, mime, circus skills..) and leads the audience through the rich and controversial life of Edith Piaf. A team of young artists (dramaturge, director, composer and pianist) enabled the artist/performer to show both her acting abilities, as well as her talent for singing.  

Katarina Orlandić: ANELIS, VISIONS ACCORDING TO ANNE FRANK’S DIARY
This multimedia performance is an adaptation of Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl. It traces the emotional states caused by isolation and the premature loss of childish innocence in a girl surrounded by an atmosphere of constant fear, owerwhelmed with anxiety, love, hunger, poverty...Several genres overlap in this play, but the expressiveness, seen in the actor’s expression and movement, prevails.
Because it is based on a book, this play could also be considered part of the category Literature and Poetry.
I am especially sad that I couldn’t  pick all of these wonderful monodramas by young authors:
THE JOURNAL OF A MADMAN by Dušan Matejić, GOD FORGIVE by Anita Stojadinović, COURTROOM by Aleksandar Ristanović, WORKS OF BRILLIANCE CANNOT BE FORGOTTEN by Vanja Dujović.

“DIASPORA” PROGRAMME
Plays by our artists in diaspora. Monodramas who fall under this category are:

Dragana Varagić: THE VINDICATION OF SENYORA KLITO MESTRES
The mythical and the real world intertwine in this monodrama through the dialogue of the actress on stage and the virtual actress on the screen. This play was imagined as an intersection of a two-dimensional world and a three-dimensional one, where fiction and reality, the past and the present, are permeated with a tale of reconciliation and redemption, combining the ancient Greek myth with its modern variation.

Ksenija Martinović: THE DIARY OF A SERBIAN HOUSEWIFE
The eponymous novel by Mirjana Bobić Mojsilović served as the basis for this monodrama. With her acting skills alone, the actress draws the audience into her dreamworld showing them her emotional states and the changes in a Serbian woman who had lived her childhood in Tito’s Yugoslavia, and her teen years during the reign of Milošević’s regime and the NATO bombing...With the spotlight on her, the heroine evokes memories, exposes her secrets and shares them with the audience.

I have to mention that both of these plays could also have been put in the Literature and Poetry group. As well as the mime act by Lilja Fredrikson and Ana Stanišić, ZiP iT.
(further explanation in the Mime section)

“MIME” PROGRAMME
The Mime Programme consists of three interesting pieces, with different ideas and art forms.  Two of these plays are from Serbia, and one is from Sweden.

Lilja Fredrikson and Ana Stanišić (Sweden): ZiP iT
By combining mime and street dance, two friends try to come to terms with their differences and similarities. The artists question themselves, the preconceived ideas and the standard notions of close female relationships. The audience will  see their relationship change on stage and go through love, hatred, mean pantomime, hugs, seduction, abuse – you name it.

CETS (Cultural and Educational Theatre of Serbia): WORDLESS BUNUEL
This play was based on the motifs of Bunuel’s tragicomedy Hamlet. It is a surrealist piece, unpredictable and full of paradox. Hamlet is a call to the imagination, or  more adequately put in the Surrealist Manifesto: “Surrealism is based on the belief in the omnipotence of dreams, in the undirected play of thought.“ A play that has mime, movement, extraordinary masks accompanied by modern music makes for an imaginative vision.

Ivana Koraksić: I CONSUME, THEREFORE I AM
A mime act which uses a combination of clowning techniques and conceptual art. It criticizes consumerism and consumer society. After welcoming the audience, the play switches to  mime and gradually evolves into conceptual theatre and interacts with the audience.
At least three other programmes could have been formed from the plays that didn’t make the cut and they would have been the following:

“HISTORY” PROGRAMME
Plays portraying characters from our history. Here are these plays:

Jelena Ivanišević, GIRL HERO (about Vasilija Vukotić)
Zdravko Maletić,  ON THE CART INTO ETERNITY (about Duke Petar Bojović)
Aleksandar Dunić, THE WISE AND BRAVE DUKE (about Duke Branko Katić)

“GOGOL” PROGRAMME
This programme would have consisted of extraordinary plays based on Gogol’s short story Diary of a Madman, adapted for the stage by young artists: Dušan Matejić and Dejan Petošević from Belgrade, Ozren Grabarić from Zagreb, and the Globe Theatre from Tbilisi.

“CONFESSIONS” PROGRAMME
This group would have contained plays portraying stories about life, real-life stories, and autobiographies: LOTTERY by Monika Romić, TO HAVE AND TO HAVE NOT by Tatjana Kecman, ABOUT CONSCIENCE by Sanja Krsmanović, THE LORD IS ALIVE by Dragana Bosnić, ONE STEP TO A CALL by Jovana Petronijević and TUGO BOŠKE by Milica Nedić.
It should be mentioned that three mono-operas and one monodrama for children were also in the running.

All of the above goes to prove what I have said at the beginning: the selection was outstanding and the decision difficult. Among the ones who applied, as well as among the ones who were selected are all artists the Festival needs and who need the Festival. The first group involves the already established artists and in the second are mainly young people who are yet to make a name for themselves.
In conclusion, I hope the Festival will take place in a spirit of noble competition and that its monodramas will be seen as a celebration of the written and spoken word, and its mime acts as a celebration of the rich diversity of the theatre of movement.

Milovan Zdravković