Bitef

Authentic, remarkable Maja Pelevic, commissioned by SNT, wrote thè text Me or Somebody Else taking for her starting point a piece of news, an actual incident of a girl's kidnapping, It is afragmentary and poetical play which decisively escapes thetraditional Aristotelian principies of drama composition, to a certain extent evocative of thè works by European writers who experimented with form (Crimp, Капе, Schimmelpenninck, Polesh),The strongest feature ofthis play, directed by Kokan Mladenovic, is a briliiant synthesis of psychological realism (the characters of Her and Hirn) and thè preconditioned nature of other characters (Mother, Father, Authority Representatives, members of the Choirs). As a result of such synthesis, this play is pronouncedly emotional, but the meaning of its plot also transcends to a metaphorical, archetypical level. Marija Medenica remarkably builds thè character of thè kidnapped girl - fragile, lonely and hungry for love. Boris Isakovic, playing the role of the kidnappet, shapes him clearly into a character defined by a basic coexistence of thè face and its reverse side - on the surface he is nice and very devoted, which is actually a maskto hide his frustrations, perversity and aggressiveness, which become obvious when he loses control. Jasna Djuricic plays the girl's mother truiy impressively- with extreme theatricaiity, mechanically, uptight, emphasizing further herfrightening impersonality and conformism. In certain scenes her play transforms into realism by which the actress expresses the horrible pain for losing her daughter. Miroslav Fabri interprets Father also stylistically, focusing on the declarative expression of his resigned and absent state of mind. By this extraordinary, absolutely Brechtian acting, they transform the characters of Mother and Father into universal types, exciting metaphorical figures who eloquently criticize thefactthatthe relationship between parents and their children is plástic and dislocated. There are three choirs partidpating in the play - the Media, Neighbours and Concerned Citizens - who comment on thè plot with a series of phrases. The choir members appear as one voice, distinctly affected, which is a very effective way to show the dreadful spitefulness of the voxpopuli, as well as its typical way of stereotype thinking.The stage corresponds to the directing concept, staying within the stylistic manner of the pseudo ready-made pop-art (Marija Kalabic).The music also serves its purpose: in some scenes it accentuates the tensión, in others - when it is pathetically idyllic, having the opposite meaning of the plot it accompanies - it underscores the tragedy of the event by means of contrast (composer Irena Popovic). Video-beam is also integrated into thè play, as wells as thè songs, all together inducing a very intensive emotional effect. Undoubtedly belonging to thè field of thè post-drama theatre, therefore a theatre operating on the other side of drama, in the time after the paradigm of drama has lost its validity (Lehmann), Me or Somebody Else is a remarkable play, equaily inspiring on the level of form and content.Treating the issues of identity, freedom, mass media function, etc. thè play Me or Somebody Else authentically addresses life in the Contemporary society, a Simulation of some bygone reality, a Bodriarian wasteland of signs which only shadows and ghosts still roam.

AnaTasic

("Politika", May 14th 2007)