Because of her unusual, almost aggressive self-portraits, Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) is permanently inscribed in the painting of the 20th century, while she is preserved in the collective memory thanks to her energy and combativeness, her bus accident (1925) and her passionate relationship with the famous painter Diego Rivera (1886-1957), whom she married for the first time in 1929. Her strong will and uncompromising approach to problems were shown already in her early childhood when, as a six-year-old girl, she suffered from polio and, despite her disability, persistently tried to be like other children. The author's project of playwright Jelena Kovačić and director Anica Tomić "Little Frida" produced by the City Theatre "Žar ptica" Zagreb (Croatia) was inspired by Frida Kahlo's childhood in the family's Blue House (La Casa Azul) in the district of Coyoacan, Mexico City. The play was on stage on May 14, at the Third International Festival of Professional Theatres for Children and Youth "Novi Sad Theatre Festival" (May 8-15, 2024).

Faking Frida's blue-painted birth house, set designer Igor Vasiljev wrapped the stage with blue fabric and thus enabled, by pressing the head from the outside into the fabric, the "appearance" of Frida's fictional friend Brise. Frida (Amanda Prenkaj) has a shorter and thinner right leg and does not like to go out because the children make fun of her ("Frida wooden leg") and prefers to hang out with her parents (Gorana Marin, Domagoj Ivanković), the cat (Petar Atanasoski) and the monkey (Marko Hergešić). To strengthen her leg, she plays sports and even plays soccer to her mother's horror (the children in the audience heartily defended Frida's right to play soccer, claiming that it was nothing unusual; I hope that when they grow up, they will be just as understanding). But one day a boy Pablo (Bogdan Ilić) appears, finally a human friend. With a lot of music (Nenad Kovačić), song and dance, Frida's days pass, her friendship with Pablo grows as well as the monkey's jealousy, so the latter destroys their relationship with lies (Pablo feels sorry for Frida and that's why he hangs out with her). And while we wait for the conflict between Frida and Pablo, the monkey's confession of lies and the final happy ending, there are no events and this "idle pace" lowers the tension of the play (the twist, although completely logical, occurs almost unexpectedly). It's a pity that the key event doesn't come a little faster (or there should be less scenes that delay the climax), because the actors are really excellent, the story is more than touching (many people cried at the end) and the idea of friendship, honesty and acceptance of diversity is increasingly important in today's superficial world. Doris Kristić's costumes follow Frida based on her later self-portraits, the parents and Pablo are dressed as expected, and I would have preferred the animal costumes to be a little more "hairy". The father, played with inspiration by Domagoj Ivanković, is both funny (he is a photographer and magician) and endlessly understanding for his gentle Frida, played by fantastic Amanda Prenkaj. The duality of the monkey character (jealousy and attachment) is very humorously portrayed by Marko Hergešić, with his excellent partner being the "feline" Petar Atanasoski (it seems that both of them attended some zoo school).

The play "Little Frida" is filled with touching family relationships and deeply thought-out messages that are heartily interpreted by excellent actors, and if the central problem could be reached a little faster, I would not have any objections. Otherwise, I have to grumble, mumble a bit.

Olga Vujović

The author is a theater critic from Croatia. She writes for www.kritikaz.com and on the portals wish.hr, fama.com.hr, virovitica.net. She is a member of the Croatian Society of Theatre Critics and Theatrologists.

"Mala Frida", from the Zagreb City Theatre "Zar ptica" taught us today that it is not true that a black cat brings bad luck and that girls do not like to play football. And she dispelled a series of misconceptions. She also taught us that friends are the ones who love us just because they love us, not because they feel sorry for us, and that it is not nice to twist the truth.

In the splendor of colors and musical tones, we walked through the life story of the wonderful Frida Kahlo. The children were delighted with the play and talked with the actors for a long time after the performance. The children liked all the actors, especially those who played the monkey and the cat, but the tiny and petite actress Amanda Prenkaj, who played Frida with inspiration, enchanted everyone the most.

After the performance, Ms Prenkaj spoke about prejudices and how children can be taught kindness and virtue in the theater, how an actor in a children's theater - in today’s world - keeps that special grain of responsibility, which is necessary for performing in front of children, but also what kind of stories we have to tell the kids in the theater so that they grow up to be good people.

How do children learn to destroy prejudices in children's theater from an early age?

It was a pleasure to show that with this performance "Little Frida", on the example of a person who really lived and felt strong prejudices on her own skin. Jelena and Anica wrote a piece about what we all experienced in our lives. We have all experienced some prejudice against us or had prejudice against others, so this is a timeless topic and I am very happy that we had the opportunity to stage it in our theater. I have a feeling that this play reaches children’s little, beautiful hearts and that it is something they will remember for a lifetime.

And how do children learn kindness in the theater?

They learn when they watch good plays, when they watch something that is sincere, well thought out. Children's problems should be approached very seriously, and all the problems they have are very serious. In this performance we did not approach them with insincerity. It was very important for Jelena and Anica to show what lies do to people, what happens when we are jealous, superficial. It is very important to show such stories to children in a very clear, simple, understandable way. Such clear stories can awaken empathy in them, and when the theater is empathetic, it naturally attracts that goodness.

Where does the theater draw empathy when our societies, both Serbian and Croatian, are almost absolutely lacking empathy?

I think that it is not only a trend in Serbia and Croatia, but that it is a trend produced by technology and capitalism everywhere.

Aren't they just an excuse?

Well, they certainly become an excuse. But the fact is that children today, while watching the news on their mobile phones, they value them all the same. The current runner-up at the Eurovision Song Contest, Baby Lasagna, has the same value as one Frida Kahlo. Everything, therefore, has the same value. Someone who dumped a bucket of ice on his head has the same value as a scientist who talks about an important health topic. As a child, I wasn’t aware of so many different pieces of information, or our parents protected us, and today you don't know what your child is watching on a mobile phone. We are constantly bombarded and the children then protects themselves from those emotions, because they are helpless and grow apathetic. When these emotions become overwhelming, there is not much to do.

Can we do anything about it?

We can teach children to act locally. In a small environment, in their own alley, in a micro environment, because they cannot influence globally. But here where they are, helping a neighbor to buy milk if he can't, some small things like that that encourage empathy.

In that micro world of children's theater, how is the ardor of the artist's responsibility towards what they do for children preserved? How is work ethics preserved?

By keeping the child in you. You must be aware of the child in you and not neglect it, that the voice of something innocent and primal creative remains in you. When you keep the child in you, then you cannot be irresponsible. You see things with a child's eyes, you have to be careful and responsible, you have to be careful how you approach things.

What kind of stories should be told to children in the theater?

Definitely stories that remind us of empathy and those that stimulate our imagination. I haven’t said anything new, because someone already said it, but every play, whether for children or adults, shouldn't tell us what to think. I think that is the most important thing, that we leave it to the children. Specifically, with "Little Frida", every child will find something for themselves, which corresponds to them and will be able to learn some value. In my opinion, that is the most important thing. We must not teach. We have to watch out for that. We know what topics we have to deal with - friendship, empathy, etc., as long as we don't tell them what to think. It is the death of theater. It's not the place for that. Theater must open imagination and worlds.

Snežana Miletić

The play "Little Frida" is about the childhood of the painter Frida Kahlo from Mexico. She had one leg thinner than the other and because of that others made fun of her. That didn't stop her from making friends with Pablo until the end. The message of this story is that there is no shame in being different from others and that we must not make fun of anyone. Also, we should always be a child and keep our imagination alive. I liked the moment when the actors jumped after taking a photo. It was funny and unexpected. I would recommend the show to viewers aged 7 to 77. Even someone aged 78 would enjoy it, since this age range should not be taken so seriously.

Stefan Zoric

Multimedia artist David Zuazola (director, scenographer, playwright, musician, actor, puppeteer...) created the international project "City of Light", which successively results in plays about cities in which events are inspired by well-known vedute and interesting, characteristic stories of the inhabitants of the chosen city.

After plays about Warsaw (Poland), Tolosa (Spain) and Seoul (South Korea), it was Kragujevac's (Serbia) turn (the selection criteria or order are not specified) and the play "City of Light" was created in the Kragujevac Children's and Youth Theatre by David Zuazola (director, concept, scenography). It was performed (May 12) at the Third International Festival of Professional Theaters for Children and Young People "Novi Sad Theater Festival" (May 8-15, 2024). The show, which was announced as "a special puppet show that goes beyond the traditional ways on which a puppet theater is based", offered viewers familiar Kragujevac vistas, situations, buildings and locations with a wide-ranging scenography, set on three levels. A team of seven participated in the "creation of conceptual solutions and production of scenography", including the performers themselves Milica Redžić Vulević, Ljubica Radomirović and Aleksandar Petković. I don't see what is "special" about the puppet expression of this play, because there is almost no animation: synchronous lighting of street lamps, remote control of vehicles, a fight in a dance club between bottles (drunkards) or a description of a music festival using the stacking of drink cans (representing the audience, consumption of drinks and uncollected garbage?) are part of the nostalgic events that, in this case, we hear about (but somehow we don't feel them to the end). In the examples shown, there were several successful, picturesque scenes, such as the pollution of the Lepenica river, caused by the spilling of paint at the "Zastava" car factory (the fall of the car series heralded the collapse of production), which caused a fish kill (first, fish jumped out of the river, and then fish skeletons; the children in the audience didn't understand what that was about!). Then, there was a striking presentation of shooting (through confessions and gunshots) and the erection of a monument ("Aborted flight") in Šumarice (for those who do not know about that tragic event, the reference remained somewhat vague). I would say that the idea and intention were extremely good and that the performers made an unusual effort, but I'm afraid that the performance might have been too similar

The third Bulgarian play at this festival came from the State Puppet Theatre of Stara Zagora, and it is about the unusual, quite surrealistic play "Hotel", author and director Lyubomir Zhelev (May 13). Zhelev, together with the performers Ana-Valeria Gostanjan and Bilyana Rainova, tells the story of "love at first sight", using various technical procedures (illusionism, juggling, acrobatics, magic tricks, slapstick), with interesting music (Todor Vasilev) and, although as a whole, the play is visually appealing (even decorative, design by Natalia Gocheva), a lot of it is questionable, even vague (why frogs?), or out of context (a head from a washbowl, a hint of a peacock in the opening scene, the introduction of puppets). There are, of course, very entertaining solutions, such as riding a deer (a combination of a chair and a deer's head), or a skillful animation of a cat (fur on the arm), but the constant passing of oversized fish and other images (supposedly inspired by Dali's paintings) causes torment, not only in a male character, but in the viewer as well. I was very surprised by the use of total darkness between scenes (popularly called “on-off direction”) which became quite irritating over time…. Additionally, I have to say that I doubt the sustainability of the 10+ indication, because the children did not understand the play at all and in the later conversation they were only interested in the details of certain tricks.

So, there is a town and there is definitely a hotel in it, but I don't know if I would recommend going there!

Olga Vujović

The author is a theater critic from Croatia. She writes for www.kritikaz.com and on the portals wish.hr, fama.com.hr, virovitica.net. She is a member of the Croatian Society of Theatre Critics and Theatrologists.

"I like the play "Hotel" of the State Puppet Theater of Stara Zagora from Bulgaria, because you can see that the actors (Ana-Valeria Gostanjan, Bilyana Rainova, Lyubomir Zhelev) and the director Lyubomir Zhelev put a lot of effort into creating magic on the stage. They thought of every detail and rehearsed it well. I did not fully understand the plot of the play. However, I liked the magician's trick when the smoke comes out of the hand and frog’s mouth. When it comes to puppets, I liked the deer the most because it was created out of lamps and chairs, which I didn't expect. I think the actress was extremely skilled, especially when she climbed the chandelier. I would recommend this show to children over the age of seven, although it is often dark and creates a scary atmosphere."

Stefan Zoric

Love at first sight and everything that happens in the first moments of that sight were the reason for the creation of the play "Hotel", which came to the Novi Sad Theatre Festival from Bulgaria, more precisely from the State Puppet Theatre in Stara Zagora.

Bulgarian puppeteers demonstrated various abilities, from acrobatics, puppetry, dance, ballet, singing to magic, and it was the magic tricks that were the most interesting during the discussion after the show. The children wanted to know how they were created. Of course, they had many questions and with one they asked for advice for their first or some future acting steps. The Bulgarian artists said that they should constantly learn and try without fear of making mistakes.

We learned from the director of the Staro Zagorje Theatre, Darin Petkov, that this is the first time that children have seen this play, because it is performed for an adult audience in Bulgaria. Mr Petkov pointed out that he was touched by the sincere reaction of the youngest audience and sincerely appreciated the sparkle in their eyes.

Lyubomir Zhelev, author of the text and director of the play, said that he was inspired for the play by surrealist painters - primarily Dali and Remedios Varo. He admitted that out of the entire cast of the play, which also includes Ana Valerija Gostanjan and Bilyana Raynova, he is the one who fell in love at first sight the most times and that he contributed the most to the creation of the material for this play.

What kind of stories do you like to tell children in Bulgaria and adults who managed to keep the child in them?

I like to tell stories about magic, love and faith in a better, more magical world, stories in which the world can stop for a second, but even then everything is ok. You just need to have the will.

What does it look like to tell such stories in the time we live in, which is not so kind to us?

It is difficult, but for me this is a personal story. It is the story of my first love, which was not successful, but I got through it and found another.

How do you find people to work with in the theatre? Are they always the same people, or do you find new ones every time?

I have a few people I like to work with, we studied together at the National Academy, but I'm always looking for new people as well. First I like to look them straight in the eye and it is important for me to have a normal, real conversation with them. Then I watch them on stage and judge whether they are for the show.

The play Hotel can be a metaphor for our hidden secrets, which we have locked up and buried inside...

Exactly. The hotel has many rooms, and in each one there are different secrets - our emotions and energy are stored, which is then occasionally poured out and only when you decide to unlock it. Only with honestly you can win over the audience.

Is it possible for an actor to hide something from the outside world?

No. If you hide it, people will feel it. So - don't hide it.

What did you feel tonight in contact with the audience, for the first time your audience were such young people?

There was a different energy, their eyes were clean and clear, and they asked wonderful questions, direct. Adults ask too many questions, maybe they should feel first, process and only then ask.

Have people completely lost that ability to feel?

They have...

Is there any hope for us in that sense?

There is. At least, I have it. Charlie Chaplin said that you have to feel more and not think too much. Think less, feel more.

Snežana Miletić

What does it mean to be a good friend and a good man, is it made from pancakes, the homemade ones with jam, the so-called "village pancakes" or the city pancakes with Nutella cream, the so-called "city pancakes"? What does it mean to "say something to someone's face", is it allowed to run away from school, from classes - even to the library and the theatre, why are invented words like "the greatestest people" important and who is allowed to invent them, how to easily find Svrljig which is on the way to China, to the left of the traffic lights, but also how to treat "multi-ailments" and whether grades A can be bought - is this possible if you go to yoga with a snail and a centipede?

Well, all this was discussed today at the Novi Sad Theater Festival, as part of the promotion of the exceptional children's book "Perfect Day", written by the even more exceptional poet Duško Domanović. The discussion was loud and courageous and the children were attentive listeners and true collaborators in questioning true values.

The day was truly perfect!

Well done for the poet, and even “well doner” for the children!

The performance "City of Light" by David Zuazola at the Theater for Children and Youth in Kragujevac is a continuation of an international project in which the city, its spirit, history and urban legends are presented through light and lamps. Thus, the story of Kragujevac began with the introduction of electricity and lighting into homes and continued with the lights of discotheques, markets, parks, taxis and ambulances, traffic lights, Arsenal Fest spotlights, lighting at the "Zastava" factory, lights in the sky during the bombing, lights of the souls of those who were shot during the Second World War and the souls of those who lived in the city, were born there, left it and returned to it.

Actor Aleksandar Petković portrays the city of Kragujevac on stage, while we hear his poetic memories from behind the stage. Although he is confined to the small space of the room for the entire performance, one gets the impression that he is walking through the city and bringing to the stage all the scenes he tells about. Actresses Milica Redžić Vulević and Ljubica Radomirović bring the Kragujevac neighborhoods and city events to life extremely skillfully. The scene about Šumarice is particularly emotional, and I commend the clearly articulated anti-fascist message that the play expresses with that. While the actress is "building" a monument to shot students and professors, the audience hears the last messages of innocent civilians who were shot by German occupation forces in October 1941.

Emotionally and atmospherically, the play is irresistibly reminiscent of the film "That’s it for today" directed by Marko Đorđević, also set in Kragujevac. Apart from the location, the film and the play do not seem to have much in common, neither in the aesthetic sense, nor in the language and narrative, but in both works the need for community and the authenticity of one city is unobtrusively highlighted, which is universal and easily understandable.

During the conversation after the performance, the actors revealed part of the process of working on the play. They made all the models of the buildings and areas of Kragujevac together with the designer Alina Linkova. That's how some of the actors, as they jokingly say, discovered a talent for drilling, sawing, and carpentry. The collective spirit, from making the show, taking care of every light source and every part of the scenography, was completely transferred to the performance.

Not only Paris is the city of light. It can be other cities as well, because the light of the city is not lighting. The lights are the people who make it and who, with their spirit, attitude towards the city - build the spirit of the place where they live. The actors from Kragujevac who performed the play "City of Light" at the Novi Sad Theatre Festival told us about one such place in Serbia - their city Kragujevac.

Chilean director and actor David Zuazola directed this unusual play, which revealed to us how Kragujevac breathes, how it used to breathe, but also what kind of theatre its actors are capable of creating. The play told us about the many symbols of the city, from potholes and heavy traffic - which is not exclusively specific of Kragujevac, to the phenomenon of the disappearance of the spirit of the city - which we witness in many Serbian cities and the ecological message in the form of the destroyed Lepenica river, to a strong anti-fascist message, embodied in the story of Šumarice.

One of the actresses in the play, Ljubica Radomirović, spoke about Kragujevac as a city of light...

In the play, you spoke very well about the anti-fascist past of Kragujevac and our country in general, the anti-fascist tradition that today we are ashamed of and push under the carpet. Some true values on which generations grew up are being erased and some other "values" are being written. How much does Kragujevac respect its anti-fascist tradition?

I was born in Užice, and the struggle against fascism is in the blood of the Užice people. I was on an excursion in Kragujevac, I was then in Šumarice, but it's different when you live in that city and understand what happened there. The anti-fascist tradition is very much alive and it is a moment of history that must not be forgotten. Because the newer generations are trying to downplay it, we have to tell the children of each new generation about Šumarica and that suffering, especially since today, unfortunately, we are witnessing a genocide that is happening against a nation, and no one is reacting. I think it is very important that we covered this topic in the theatre for children. People forget and need to be reminded. We experience all kinds of things on a daily basis, the news changes so quickly that we don't even remember some of the recent horrors.

The theater is there to warn and remind us of everything around us...

And it has been doing that for 2000 years.

It is a great responsibility to teach and remind children and young people about environmental and various other social topics... Do you ever get tired?

But that is our task, the theatre should not – whether it is for adults, or children - deal with trivial topics and for people to get mere entertainment. Unfortunately, many people go to the theatre to get mere entertainment and think that’s theatre’s only purpose. But the theatre is a well-mannered educational institution and it's absolutely fine to deal with all these topics. Maybe it discourages someone, but until something changes, until people learn that they should throw garbage in the bin, we need to work on it, be persistent.

Here at the festival, we keep talking about how in Serbia a certain age group of young people in one part of their lives has nothing to watch in the theater. Why aren't we interested in creating the taste of those young people?

  We always ask what they are actually interested in, what interests them more, because we wouldn't make plays about Tiktok and Instagram. And then we are always on a seesaw. We opened the Youth Stage about a year ago and, if nothing else, we put on plays based on the mandatory reading material. So, over time we will find out what they would like to watch. Also, they are a little confused, not exactly sure what they would like to see in the theatre.

 What kind of audience are children and young people in Kragujevac? Do you manage to get their attention?

  We have a really well-groomed audience, parents bring their children, and we also have real fans who watch plays up to 15 times. The culture of going to the theatre in Kragujevac is very much present, even though there is a segment of the population that doesn't even know that there is a theatre, whereas those who know - they adore it.

Snežana Miletić

A lot of effort and work was put into the show about the light of the city of Kragujevac "City of Light" by the Theatre for Children and Youth, Kragujevac. The lights of this city are the souls of all its inhabitants. The play is instructive and interesting. It deals with everyday events in the city in an interesting way, through models of important city institutions and buildings, and through light.

It's interesting to see all the small buildings made of cardboard, metal, lights... We liked the scene with the "Zastava" factory the most, because it taught us that we shouldn't pollute nature. We recommend the show to all residents of Kragujevac, as well as residents of other cities. If the play "City of Light" were to be performed in Novi Sad, the lights of the city that we would single out are: the lights of the theatres, the light on the Petrovaradin Fortress, the lanterns in the Danube Park.

Sara Ilić and Stefan Zorić, young critics of the Novi Sad Theatre Festival

The character of a clown in the theater has neither a future nor a past, it exists only here and now, and its mission is to make the audience laugh. The clown (Georgi Spasov), author of the play "Clown and his children" by Zheni Pashova and Petar Pashov, produced by "Atelier 313" from Sofia, also has helpers in making him laugh - his puppet children (they are animated, behind the screen, by Rozika Spasova). The play is made up of gags, "Mickey Mousing", overcoming obstacles in the style of slapstick comedy. The clown turned the language barrier into his advantage, so there were frequent jokes about misunderstandings and asking for translation help from the youngest audience. All in all, skillful, not over-the-top, but entertaining.

AUDIENCE IMPRESSIONS:

"It was fun and I'm very pleased that I understood the Bulgarian language." (age 8)

"I laughed several times." (age 7)

"I really liked the Ballerina Nina puppet." (age 4)

"I liked the puppets and how colorful everything was." (age 5)

Hristo The Elephant - an equilibrist, with a charming clown and his troupe, which consisted of muscles, ballerinas, ducks and some other puppets, greatly entertained the youngest audience of the Novi Sad Theater Festival. Their parents and all the guests of the Festival enjoyed the play, too. Well done to the skilled and charming Bulgarian puppeteers Rozika and Georgi Spasov who enticed scores of smiles and applause throughout the show with their inspired play.

For the theater in general, responsibility towards the audience is important, and what kind of responsibility do you need to have when you are an actor for children, a puppeteer?

Georgi Spasov: An actor must absolutely and constantly be aware of that responsibility. My teacher used to say – to play for children should be done the same way as for adults, only with more responsibly and even better.

Today, it is very difficult for the theater to be more imaginative than the sensations offered to children by phones, the Internet and various other gadgets. How can theater deal with that?

G S: I don't think that mobile phones and all modern technology can displace the theater from our lives. I would quote a playwright who says that even if there were two people left on earth, one would make theater and the other would watch.

Today we saw two big children in you two. How to protect that child in a grown man in a time that is not kind to anyone?

G S: I think it is individual. Some people keep the child inside them, some don't. In any case, our profession, and the fact that we work for children, helps us to maintain and keep the child in us.

You played in Bulgarian and there were fears whether the children would understand a lot of the text you spoke, but the enchanting play overcame the language barrier. Were you afraid of what it would look like?

G S: There was a language barrier, but it is always a question of desire and will to overcome it, both on the part of the actors and the audience. The more the actors give and find a way to convey and perform better, the more that barrier disappears. This mutual will is important.

Is it harder to be visible or invisible on stage? You, Rozika, were invisible during the whole performance, and yet, your performance thrilled the audience.

Rozika Spasova: Well, it is more difficult to be invisible, because the actor has contact with the audience, and the invisible one does not. I can't see the audience, but I have to make contact with the children. The puppeteer does not have direct contact with the audience, but through the puppet and it is the reverse process, because through the puppet they cannot receive the feeling and energy that the audience gives to the puppet, and everything is therefore much more complicated than when the actor feels it live.

When you got the idea for this play, did you write a script, a text, make a construction of how everything would look, or did you build this clown story piece by piece?

Rozika Spasova: We didn't have any script, just the idea to work with the famous Bulgarian director, unfortunately the late Peter Pashov, to build a story, and then we included other collaborators in the story, with whom we created the play together. Little by little, what we see today was formed.

The author's project of director Vanja Jovanović and playwright Matej Sudarić "Velvet Revolution" produced by the Osijek Cultural Center was performed at the Novi Sad Youth Theatre (May 11) at the Third International Festival of Professional Theatres for Children and Youth - Novi Sad Theatre Festival (May 8-15 2024) and it arrived at the festival under the aura of good "vibrations".

Although the state provides them with all legitimate rights from the age of eighteen, today’s youth are in their thirties, still not willing (or ready) to take responsibility (even those up to the age of 35 are considered young, although young people once sat on the throne at the age of 23, some even at the age of 17, while some wrote their most important literary works before their twenties). On the eve of the defense of his graduate thesis on the topic of the French Revolution, history student Duško Radić (Vedran Dakić) decides to spend the evening in peace, after which he will enter the "adult world", but his girlfriend Mila (Mateja Tustanovski), brother Neno (Nikola Radoš) and friend Jan (Matko Trnačić) with his girlfriend Ana Flegar (Sara Moser) conclude that they must be with him because he has been behaving strangely for the past month. The evening passes in mutual teasing because no one respects the other's worldview, so each of the characters is clearly profiled: Ana annoys everyone around her with her forced "environmental" care, especially her compliant boyfriend Jan, the brothers Duško and Neno accuse each other of various family situations , and Mila tries to achieve a happy relationship with Duško. No one is overly satisfied or assumes what the future will bring, but Duško (whom they describe as soft, gentle, velvety) leads the way in this apprehension. Moving from the seating set to the raised podium with the piano (Mario Tomašević), the actors move in a closed space in which realistic scenes alternate with illusion, where, thanks to the light (Anđela Kusić), it is always completely clear when the participants are talking to each other and when they are singing along to the piano. (music by Ljudevit Laušin, piano played by Tustanovski) represents Duško's idea that his friends are mocking him (the audience and actors are placed on the stage, which ensures a more intimate transmission of the message). The first part of the play consists of these more or less humorous "fights", while in the second part Duško turns to his own fears of the future (surrounded by defensive jute bags) and going out "into the world" (the room is obviously a kind of protection, defense, security) in which we recognize the "Peter Pan syndrome" - the fear of assuming responsibility in accordance with age. Although Duško uses the concept of revolution, he knows that he is weak, unprepared, immature, powerless - in short, "velvety" (oxymoron). The transition from the situation in which the friends are chatting to the situation in which we follow Duško's inner questioning is dramaturgically unclear since there is no reason for this reversal. If this "internal" presentation is supposed to show the search for the causes of fear (I can hardly believe that people on the threshold of their thirties are so immature) and possible salvation, I would expect a metaphorical approach and not the level of proclamation. And all of that presented in camouflage coats (M. Tomašević).

Since I always write through a personal lens, I wonder to what extent the generation gap between me and the characters is an obstacle in recognizing their problems, and how much of it is due to the author's team trying too hard with this: we all had and still have various fears, but at least we try to find a cause for them; whereas, it seems to me that in this play, only the surface has been "scratched" without really investigating what it is all truly about?! What makes this play interesting (and very good) are the actors: especially Vedran Dakić, whose acting energy is a real locomotive. In his acting, everything is dosed and in its place: movement, grimace, sarcastic comment. Despite the role of a "background player" (compared to the energetic Ana in Sara Moser's interpretation), Matko Trnačić coped exceptionally well in the duality of Jan: he would be happy to express himself, but he would not want to insult ayone. The characters of Mila (Tustanovski) and Neno (Radoš) are on that line, but in a smaller contrast, so they all together form a well-balanced cast.

Olga Vujović

The author is a theater critic from Croatia. She writes for www.kritikaz.com and on the portals wish.hr, fama.com.hr, virovitica.net. She is a member of the Croatian Society of Theatre Critics and Theatrologists.

Vedran Dakić plays Duško Radić in Osijek's "Velvet Revolution", which we saw on the fourth night of the festival. For that role, he received the award for the best leading actor in a drama at the Croatian Drama Theater Awards. Before becoming an actor, Dakić studied agro-economics, as he admitted in one of his previous interviews, he doesn't even know why. Fortunately, from that detour, he returned to what he is dedicated to today - acting.

The play "Velvet Revolution" is the author's project of Vanja Jovanović and Matej Sudarić. It begins as a relaxed gathering of five young people before Duško Radić's graduation thesis defense, which will officially represent the end of one and the beginning of a different life for him. Radić's fears before the inevitable entry into adult life are the theme of this play, and they are actually the fears we all face when we find ourselves at a turning point. Actor Vedran Dakić spoke about those milestones and revolutions, but also evolutions, after the performance...

Your character is trying some revolutions, he is fighting at least against imaginary enemies, he is still brave, before some serious revolution eats him. With your own little revolution, have you ever managed to dig into some system?

Yes, I remember one that ended in victory. We were supposed to play this play at a festival where different stages were involved, and we got the stage where it was not possible to have adequate light as our play needs because for some scenes the atmosphere is built with specific light. Light plays a big role, and I don't believe that the play would have been successful if it hadn't been so accurately represented by the light. And at that festival, we received a light with which it was not possible to do it, for some strange reasons, but we also knew why it was done, why they gave us only three spotlights. I didn't want to back down, I insisted that we play on our stage and nowhere else, and it was a small victory, which meant a lot to me.

How many times a day do you succeed in those small victories?

Sometimes more, sometimes less. Every day something happens at rehearsal and it makes me stronger.

Revolutions lurk in each of us, as do fears. However, fears are easier to feel, more than courage. We are somehow elementally less brave for courage. People put up with incredibly senseless and wrong things. Why is it easier to suffer than to be brave, and when have we stopped being brave, when has convenience become more important to us than ethics?

I think it is precisely convenience that has led to the collapse of courage. I became aware of this at the moment when I realized that I could fall into it myself, looking at other colleagues and people in general. At some point, they obviously came to terms with a certain concept and state of affairs, they had enough, or they got tired, or they simply didn't care anymore. People very easily agree to something that is below their level. And I realized that the moment I noticed that I was starting to accept it myself. I got scared and snapped out of it. I said no, no and no. A distinction must be made, because otherwise you drown in it. You have a salary, you work a little, you buy this, you buy that and you think, that's it. But it isn't. Beyond that, there is something better and more important. It makes me sad when I see how bitter and unhappy these people are, they always have something to complain about. Acting is a special profession. It is actually a calling and it should only be pursued by those who feel that calling within themselves, because everything else is pointless. I can't imagine that someone went to the academy for five years, was locked in a black room for 12 hours, played this and that, and didn't like it, so that's incomprehensible to me. Commodity really catches people. I admit that I am also afraid of something like that happening to me.

In the Croatian theater, there were directors who knew how to start a revolution on stage because they worked on important and painful topics in ways that had not been seen before. Like Frljić, for example. Are there such creative revolutionaries today? Are there theaters where there are not 15 premieres and no performances, but those where the repertoire is planned?

There is something like that in all theaters, such material, but it is very important that the head of the theater is an educated person, a theater-educated person, and it is very important how he creates the team. It is important that they are also educated people, honest in their intentions and ideas, that they know why they do something and why they work with certain people.

 And how can that be influenced, how can you as an actor influence that?

I would very much like to say that I can. But... I tried and I think that the only way to have an impact is with projects like the "Velvet Revolution". In Osijek, for example, no auditions for actors have taken place in the last ten years. So is that normal?! Who prevents us from auditioning? I understand, theaters have ensembles, and I'm in an ensemble, ok. Ensembles do co-productions and that's where new energy happens and that's great. And all that stands, but at the end of the day, why aren't auditions organized anymore. But no, it's our practice, we do three premieres, or five, these people do, when you ask what we're doing - the answer is it doesn't matter, don't worry, and you know you have to worry. You are like an actor on some kind of moving factory line waiting to do something mechanically and that's it. When you look at it, it looks like you're doing some work like people who work from 7 to 3, and an actor is not that - an actor doesn’t have set working hours. You are an actor all day, every day of the year, both on holidays and on Sundays. In addition, it is very important to know that an actor is not only what people see on stage, we learn the text at home, and where are the rehearsals... Acting work does not last only while the actor is on stage... And that's why education would be very important there.

Do you have ethics as a subject at the Academy? Is the something about work ethics?

We don't have that, but at our Academy Stanislavsky is the main subject, and he has an ethics of acting, which I think is very good and if people adhere to it - what theaters we would have! We go through all that during schooling, but it gets lost afterwards. Our academy is really good: either you learn or you leave. And you really learn everything, except how to deal with theater directors, management and colleagues, and all that awaits you beyond the stage and acting. When a young actor comes to the theater, they have no idea what they will encounter. They find themselves on unfamiliar ground, because at the Academy they were always protected, they had someone to rely on, someone would always tell them if something was wrong, if it wasn't good, what needs to be fixed... If they make a mistake, it's not the end of the world... That's why I think that there should be a course at the academies that would introduce acting students to that story, where they would be told what awaits them when they start a professional acting life. For example, we've been to a lot of festivals and this is the second round table we've been to. We didn't expect it to be like this, talkative, open. There, it's a sort of school, and it says a lot about the festival.

 Snežana Miletić

Photo: Milana MIlovanov