Je li bilo knezeve vecere 2
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STERIJINO POZORJE FESTIVAL 2009 - Novi Sad, Serbia
Serbian National Theatre, Novi Sad, Serbia
WAS THE PRINCE'S DINNER SERVED / JE LI BILO KNEZEVE VECERE
written and directed by Vida Ognjenovic
Performed like a lavish ironic/polemic vivisection of our national/civil, even salon/political mind prone to a mythic understanding of history and our place in it, the lively and picturesque text by Vida Ognjenovic belongs to the kind whose topicality will not be questioned soon, both because of the so-called internal and external reasons. If we are thinking about the former, there is a skilfully and powerfully developed double-play constructed on the image of a civil milieu of Novi Sad at the end of the 19th century and the then political crede that sees its highest voice in the jubilee/parade-like reconstruction of “the prince's dinner”, the one which uncontrollably pours over into the emptiness of realistically possible and into a tragic incident as its energetic continuation. If we think of the other, “external” reason for this play, the matter is even more obvious, i.e. topical, not only as theatre that “denounces life” but also like the one offering it a mirror of a multi-meaningful message, if not a cure.
Of course, there is the third and the most important element, a rich ensemble play written in the proven directorial handwriting of the author itself, in which all the replicas are adequate, the actors at work are worth of art as much as of life we are living, and the audience aware of its participation in something larger than in a mere drama or a mere comedy. This is where the absence of a question mark in the title of Vida Ognjenovic’s piece perhaps comes from, just as this play does not need an exclamation point. It is sufficient to watch it, in a still-fresh edition.
Serbian National Theatre, Novi Sad, Serbia
WAS THE PRINCE'S DINNER SERVED / JE LI BILO KNEZEVE VECERE
written and directed by Vida Ognjenovic
Performed like a lavish ironic/polemic vivisection of our national/civil, even salon/political mind prone to a mythic understanding of history and our place in it, the lively and picturesque text by Vida Ognjenovic belongs to the kind whose topicality will not be questioned soon, both because of the so-called internal and external reasons. If we are thinking about the former, there is a skilfully and powerfully developed double-play constructed on the image of a civil milieu of Novi Sad at the end of the 19th century and the then political crede that sees its highest voice in the jubilee/parade-like reconstruction of “the prince's dinner”, the one which uncontrollably pours over into the emptiness of realistically possible and into a tragic incident as its energetic continuation. If we think of the other, “external” reason for this play, the matter is even more obvious, i.e. topical, not only as theatre that “denounces life” but also like the one offering it a mirror of a multi-meaningful message, if not a cure.
Of course, there is the third and the most important element, a rich ensemble play written in the proven directorial handwriting of the author itself, in which all the replicas are adequate, the actors at work are worth of art as much as of life we are living, and the audience aware of its participation in something larger than in a mere drama or a mere comedy. This is where the absence of a question mark in the title of Vida Ognjenovic’s piece perhaps comes from, just as this play does not need an exclamation point. It is sufficient to watch it, in a still-fresh edition.
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