STERIJINO POZORJE FESTIVAL 2009 - Novi Sad, Serbia -
National Theatre, Belgrade, Serbia -
DEATH AND THE DERVISH / DERVIS I SMRT
after the novel by Mesha Selimovic
directed by Egon Savin
The first sign of this play, extremely rich in its stage radiation, woven out of a mature imaginative weaving of Egon Savin, reaches from the claustophobically rewritten perspective of a classical scene of a box diagonally narrowed down by a heavy wall as an almost palpable symbolic image of that (un)human power that tramples upon the convictions and desires of the characters in Selimovic's work. All the rest is equally important and powerful as that wall here, and it adds up together just like when proven masters are gathered together. Savin is here again leading a successful dialogue not only with Selimovic's work/persona and the embraced discourse of the epochs, but also with a brilliant soloist Nikola Ristanovski is capable of being – unique and universal, with an ensemble in which both stars and the emptied space between them glows, with a skillful instrumentalization of decor and all the visible and audible elements of the stage. The play, which, for its external features, like costumes, we can prize as a topical inovation, and which may still, in the impression of its overall quality, remain almost insignificant. Just as it is not of extreme importance for the dervish dance producing the interplays of this successful theatrical revival of the celebrated novel whether or not the circle in which the dance takes place is visibly marked or entirely fictive, accessible only to the spirit of the person dancing or to us all.
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