Milosevic figure at Gracanica theatre

Director Jelena Bogavac, who for this theatre-music show has written the text, says the show deals with the consequences of power autism, autocratic and historical necessity.

We are not working from the angle of our generations, but in fact, we are performing for ourselves”, Bogavac says, adding that this show is not becoming a circus with politicians, but not a political circus show.

Predrag Randojq, director of the Pristina National Theatre with headquarters in Gracanica, speaking of Radio Free Europe, says the show is aimed at critical and artistic revision of the past. He stresses that the first idea of working on this show has been related to the situation in Mitrovica in the 1990s, in a residential building of different ethnicities, with all the consequences of time. All dramatology, according to him, had to focus within the space of an elevator, with people going through that elevator all those years. But, as Radonjq says, the director of the show (Nenad Todorovic) has realized that the wider flow of Milosevic's nature is needed and that such a thing requires involvement in his confession to Milosevic's couple.

But what I as director insist on is that this show be completely out of context of any ideological interpretation and that confession be based on what is pure playwright. And this is a tragic figure, tragic character because when all the biographies and establishments are looked at, the coming to power, the period of that rule and the way that the man has ended his life, he truly understands that the pure meaning of literary and dramatical we have to do with something that is highly appreciative of the interpretation of tragedy, as, as it were, King Ler, in a specific way”, Randojq said.

This has largely attracted the attention of the media, and this in a way speaks of how much that period of history is alive and how much further the taboo theme represents. I think that first of all, we will artisticly be able to respond to this and avoid any possible trap and consequence, which would be connected to any politicisation of all this”, he stressed.

Regarding the show, he does not expect reactions in Kosovo, because, as he has said, the “page is no compromise of Milosevic or any political attack”.

But certain media in Kosovo, in recent days, have broadcast that through a theatre performance “is resurresing Milosevic”, and some artists have called for this show to be banned in Kosovo, this is considered to present provocation for the families of war victims.

Dramaturgue from Kosovo, Jeton Neziraj, speaking of Radio Free Europe, has described the titles appointed in several Kosovo media, as well as the function of manipulation of opinion, regarding the show as scandalous and biased.

“S first, it's about a show that has not yet been given as premiere and by the short description the authors had performed, nowhere, I at least didn't understand, that through the show they wanted to clone and glorify Milosevic's image, as they claimed to introduce some of the media in Kosovo. Simply, they're dealing with or being taken as a political theater with political figures, whether they're heroes or anti-heroes. After all, the main principle is that the show must first be seen, whatever it is and then we can debate its aesthetic, context and ethical aspects, Neziraj stressed.

Meanwhile, Jelena Bogavac points out that in the first phase, the text has worked only with historical documents, types of various historical situations, as well as with The Hague transcripts. She has also said she has talked to people in Kosovo about their feelings and their fate.

Recalling that she deals with post-dramatic theatre, Bogavac has stressed that this theatre does not bring courts but deals with courts.

So it's about collisions, stereotypes and contours. Such a post-dramatic theatre, in fact, is a scheme crash of opposing information that we have with certain historical, social, solar information and so on. It means that this kind of theater truth is born from this very crash, or in the spark of this clash, and that it is true only in the theater. It's very important to make it clear that our show doesn't think of anything and that it's a slight buzz of many boils, following the global disaster that had happened to us all in the 90”, Bogavac said.

Young people from the Gli Serbia choir, who, Bogavac says, are the babies of Milosevicki, born in the 1990s and now have their own post-ideological and post-catastrophic attitudes, as well as certain attitudes for themselves and the world.

According to her, the show primarily deals with the consequences, either by or by the children themselves.