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Beogradsko dramsko pozoriste 21.09. 20:00 Trajanje; Ih4o'

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Set design: Hupko Istvan Costumes design: Mima Hie Music: Lajko Feliks Dramaturgist: Olivera Dordevic Cast: Jovan Ristovski, Mikes Elek Imre, Veroslava Jankovic, Vesna Kljajic-Ristovic,Kristina Jakovljevic, Zoran Bucevac, Branko Lukac/Milan Vejnovic, Ljubisa Ristovic, Helena Mihajlovic, Vladimir Grbic, Srdan Sekulic, Marko Makivic, Nikola Ivackov, BranislavTrifkovic. Premiere: 8 December 2008 Jadran Stage, Narodno pozoriste-Narodno kazaliste-Népszinhâz Subotica Duration; 1 h 40' A WORD FROM THE DRAMATURGIST Dusan Kovacevic's Gathering Place was written at a time when the introduction of'small businesses' was a catchphrase as frequently and clumsily used as'transition and privatisation' - the today's favourite across this "only geographically rich country". At that time people still addressed one another as 'comrade': some with melancholy gravity and others with a shade of (then) courageous mockery. In 2008 in Subotica, Gathering Place of those days wouldn't make much sense. However, there is a reason why Kovacevic's text is one of the classics in the Serbian dramatic literature. And - like every classic - it offers many possibilities, and at different levels, to the director, the actors, and even to the dramatugist. In this case the dramaturgist's job was inextricably linked with the job of the Drama Director because the biggest risk rested precisely with initial decisions. The first concerned the choice of the play the cast of which, according to the author, consists predominantly of middle-aged individuals whereas the Serbian language company is one of the youngest in the country in 2008 (many of its members were born at the time when Kovacevic wrote Gathering Place). Then the youngest company also got a director whose poetics is quite specific and original: Andras Urban. When it all, at long last, came together more than successfully, the dramaturgist's decisions became much simpler and easier... With all that was made available to us, we approached the text carefully and with deference. Little was struck out, nothing was added. We paid no attention to the excellent film by Goran Markovic because, just like the world of the living and the world of the dead, film and theatre are, however similar, nonetheless two different realities. The most radical deviation, and probably seen for the first time, is the 'Andrasesque' meeting of the living and the dead. In everything else Kovacevic remained Kovacevic.

Our Gathering Place does not pretend to look for answers to these questions. And it is not a space where souls are recruited for heaven or hell At this meeting point there is neither heaven nor hell; the stairs leading to red-hot lava will take you to the same place that you left from. And whoever may be above the two worlds, the world of the dead and the world of the living, only flies over us, with no intention to land and join the all-round chaos. What remains for us, It seems, is to go on waiting and waving. Oija fîordevic

Narodno pozoriste - Narodno kazaliste - Népszmhaz Subotica Upravnik: +3Bl 24554 700 Drama na srpskom jeziku: 551 991 Drama na madarskom jeziku: 556 429 E: npnkn@npnkn.org www.suteatar.org

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