The idea for this performance originated during my master classes in Acting at the Academy of Art in Novi Sad, Serbia in early 2016 when I was working with the postgraduate drama students.
We worked on the theatrical portraits of several people who gave their lives for their ideas. I asked the actors who are all in their early 20s: “What would you give your life for?“ When we exclude the family that most people would sacrifice their lives for, the question remains whether is there any idea or project for which we would give our lives for? The young actors were confused at first. Some gave the ideological answers but on the second thought some or them expressed rather nihilistic views. That’s how it began this extremely exciting process in which we considered ideas, philosophies, beliefs and politics behind someone’s readiness to sacrifice his/her own life for. In a parallel process we also investigated the new theatrical forms since I believe that the new age requires the new theatrical expressions too.
The Age of Universal Communication, in which we live, changes paradigm of our communication. Who are the identities that communicate in the virtual space? Real people?
Individually created identities? Groups with a common “voice” in a form of one identity? Automated identities? Modern Communication includes all these forms of identity in the virtual space.
Storytellers in our age are the entities behind the IP addresses; it is less important who are they, and where are they, than what are they saying. Their identities communicate in a virtual intellectual space / time. Each identity has access to the totality of a story, follows it and co-constructs it by its own contribution. Yet, such a story may also have the concrete real-life physical, social and political consequences. Sometimes these consequences may be fatal.
This may sounds complicated for a moment, but it is not actually. It’s just a contemporary discourse that goes beyond traditional dramaturgical forms, as they are insufficient for a new paradigm in which we live. The actors, directors and spectators have changed in this new paradigm; speed is different; attention is different; connecting is more different than ever before. The stories become faster; we are requested to understand quicker; a processing is shorter; the outcomes are immediate.
Spectators in our show have more private space than in the traditional shows – he or she freely chooses where to sit; and what and when and how to watch and listen. A viewer is in the Present, not outside of it. However, the viewer is protected and his or her personal space is not disturbed. We are creating a new concept of the participation of the viewer in the show.
Theatre that we create is intellectual theater, but it is not alienated from the viewer who has no higher education. On the contrary, our theater is available to each viewer; ideas belong to everyone. Our theater is based on facts, but it is not a documentary theatre. It is a Theater of Reality. Life and art unite in a theatrical testimony that is so urgent.
Haris Pašović
Credits
Actors (in alphabetical order)
Katarina Bradonjić,Amar Čustović,Lana Delić,Fedor Đorović,Sanela Krsmanović-Bistrivoda,Miloš Lazić,Peđa Marjanović,Mina Pavlica,Dražen Pavlović,Gabor Pongo,Mia Simunović,Ema Stojanović,Marko Vasiljević,Dušan Vukašinović,Nikola Živanović
Producer: Haris Pašović
Set design: Lada Maglajić and Vedad Orahovac
Costume design: Irma Saje
Choreography:Thomas Steyaert
Music (composer, arrangements, processing): Rastko Ilić
Light design: Nikola Marinkov
Producer’s Assistant: Elma Islamović
Graphic design: Enes Huseinčehajić
Physical preparation: Peđa Marjanović
Accompanist: Ema Stojanović
Technical director BNP: Elfad Baručija
Marketing BNP: Elvir Škiljo
PR: Merima Handanović,Snežana Miletić
Props: Amar Brka
Wardrobe: Lejla Bajramović,Duško Lovrić
Hair and make up: Emela Topalović
Stage technician: Admir Buro,Dragan Rekanović,Dino Šekić,Ervin Čaušević
Light technician: Elvis Ahmović,Samir Jašar
Sound technician: Sani Terzić
Refreshment: Daniel Kusta,Dajana Đurasović
Executive producer: Ismar Hadžiabdić,East West Centar Sarajevo
Project manager: Lejla Abazović-Muratović,East West Centar Sarajevo
Producers:
Haris Pašović, East West Sarajevo
Nikola Vukašinović, Pozorište Promena Novi Sad
Hazim Begagić, Bosansko narodno pozorište Zenica
Valentin Vencel, Novosadsko pozorište/Újvidéki Színház
