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Directed by ANA TOMOVIĆ
Composer DARKO RUNDEK
Dramaturges
VUK RŠUMOVIĆ & SVETISLAV JOVANOV
Set Design LjERKA HRIBAR
Costume Design MOMIRKA BAILOVIĆ
Choreography Saša Krga
Masks Vladimir Radovanović
Organiser Elizabeta Fabri
Sound Design Marinko Vukmanović
Premiere: September 24th 2008 |
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CAST |
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Little sister, Alice, Snowhite, Goldilocks, Thumbelina, Princess, Woman, Witch |
JASNA ĐURIČIĆ |
Mother (of Woman), Mama Bear |
DRAGINjA VOGANjAC |
Big sister (of Woman), Gretel |
MILICA GRUJIČIĆ |
Doc, Papa Bear, Frog |
RADOJE ČUPIĆ |
Grumpy, Hunter |
NENAD PEĆINAR |
Sleepy, Baby Bear, Eaglet, Eagle, Hansel |
RADOVAN VUJOVIĆ |
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Musicians |
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Ksenija Bašić, Milan Nenin, Lazar Novkov, Lav Kovač, Siniša Mazalica |
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| SERBIAN NATIONAL THEATRE - NOVI SAD |
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The roots of the Serbian National Theatre reach back to 1861, when, on the meeting of the Serbian Reading-room, held in Novi Sad on July 16 (28), with Svetozar Miletic as a chairman, the decision of founding the Serbian National Theatre was made. Novi Sad became the cradle of the Serbian theatre, and was, with good reason named “The Serbian Athens”. The theater’s actors were also the cultural missionaries, who made a fundamental influence to the cultural identity and conscience of the nation. The principals aims of the Serbian National Theatre are to promote and preserve the national and international theatrical and cultural heritage, and to present the most valuable contemporary creative practice. Therefore, we stage large, ambitious production. The Serbian National Theatre has represented our culture throughout the country - we have played in more than 300 venues with around a thousand performances - and abroad, with about a hundred performances in Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Bulgaria, Italy, Netherland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Iraq, Egypt, Slovenia, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina... The theatre has presented its work - and gained many awards - at the main festivals in Serbia, and at many European festivals too.
Serbian National Theatre is a member of the European Theatre Convention, a theatrical association which engages 32 European theatres. At the same time, our Theatre is one of the initiators and co-founders of the international theatre Festival Theatre without frontiers, with partners from Eger (Hungary), Sfântu Gheorghe (Romania), Nantes (France), Szczecin (Poland) etc. |
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P E R F O R M A N C E...... |
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In its play - fourth in the order of appearance - Milena Marković researches at the same time a possible profile of a typical “heroine of our time” and one of the most popular and for a stage setting the most difficult dramatic conventions: a fairy tale convention. The Doll Ship is a dramatic text in which the tragic, farcical, and grotesque intermingle; since this drama is at the same time an original “journey” through Snowhite and the Seven Dwarfs, Goldilocks, Hansel and Gretel and other classic fairy tales of the western tradition, this project blends the modernity of expression and a top-level writing skill, so in that sense it has to be placed in the elite scene of the Serbian National Theatre.
 Svetislav JOVANOV
The fate of a woman in a mosaic of a fairy tale. Difficult to grasp, but damn attractive as everything else from Milena Marković. Ana Tomović answers with the newly-established esthetic system and begets the spectator anew, knocks out all of his gender and psychological predudices. The fulness of the directorial matrix and the eruption of the play are unthinkable without the charismatic Jasna Đuričić. She inbues everything with energy and furiously carries the entire crew. As a multi-heroine from the piece, she is a mature hypersensibility and the dancing nymphet whose imagination is hard to satiate.
RTS, News 2 |
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S E L E C T O R ' S...R E P O R T ...... |
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Interwoven with fantastic authorial imagination of Milena Markovic, on the SNT stage seemingly overcrowded with objects, music and symbols, The Doll Ship connects a circle of raw life as we know it today with a circle of eternal fairy tales along with quick style and genre reference exchanges of a game from which alternately, and in unison, breezes a spirit of the first naturalistic romance, grotesque, caricature, the final tragic emptiness of being and time... Opposed, but also contributing to this, static strongholds of this steaming, prothean play in which narration and poetry merge, youthful ceremonial desire and its broken arche-remnants become symbolic multi-meaningful masks along a full interaction of actors/characters, as well as a powerful musical background by Darko Rundek, who to this entire bitter confusion bestows a huge figure of live orchestra set on the stage, like some firm but not quite palpable stronghold.
Obviously complex, even a little pretentious in its conception, but equally dramatic, convincing, thanks to the balanced, precise direction of a young director as much as the a brilliant play by Jasna Djuricic, followed in an almost equally elevated/multiplied interpretive key by Draginja Voganjac, Milica Grujicic, Radoje Cupic, Nenad Pecinar, Radovan Vujovic.
Igor BURIĆ & Vladimir KOPICL |
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Ana Tomović: Born in 1979 in Belgrade. Earned her degree in theatre and radio directing at the Faculty of Performing Arts in Belgrade, in the class of Prof. Egon Savin and assistant Dušan Petrović.
Directed: Creeps by Lutz Hubner (Belgrade Drama Theatre), Duck by Stella Feehily (Kraljevo Theatre), Halflife by Filip Vujoševića (Atelier 212), The Return of Casanova, after the novella by Arthur Schnitzler (Serbian National Theatre), Monogamy by Stella Feehily (Sombor National Theatre), authorial project Trtmrtživotilismrt (Belef 2007), Norway Today by Igor Bauersima (co-production between Belgrade Drama Theatre and Krusevac Theatre). Winner of best director at Joakimfest in 2005 for the play Duck, and in 2006 with the play Halflife participated at Sterijino Pozorje. From 1998 to 2005 member of the editorial board and editor of the Bitef Bulletin. Assistant Director on the project Fast sicher in “Theater am Neumarkt” in Zurich in 2007, and the recipient of the Goethe Institute scholarship for an academic sojourn in “Thalia Theater” in Hamburg in 2008. |
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Alisa: Could you please tell me which road to take out of here?
Cheshire Cat: That greatly depends on where you want to go.
The unusual, unique and emotional poetic world of Milena Marković made a riddle-like impression on me. I felt it deeply even though I could not rationally explain it well. I realised very quickly that one should not even attempt that, and that our natural tendency for rationalisation is fatal in this case. Finally, I decided to convey the riddle to the audience.
Ana TOMOVIĆ |
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Milena Marković: Born in 1974 in Zemun. Earned her degree at the Faculty of Performing Arts, department of dramaturgy, with the play Pavilions, or Where am I Going, Where am I Coming from and What’s for Dinner (1998).
Stage: Pavilions: premiere in 2001 in the Yugoslav Drama Theatre, directed by Alisa Stojanović; Macedonian National Theatre, directed by Srdjan Janićijević; In the competition of the Vienna m.b.h. theatre, Milena received the special prize for this play, Jaka Ivanc at the Ljubljana Drama earned her degree in directing with this text; God Has Looked at Us - Tracks: Milena participates in the summer residence of the Royal Court Theatre in London; Premiere in the Vienna m.b.h. theatre, directed by Zijah Sokolović; Premiere in the YDT, directed by Slobodan Unkovski; Polish Theatre in Poznan, directed by Rafal Sabara - In 2004 at Sterijino Pozorje, Milena receives the Special Sterija Prize for the text; Tracks by YDT at the Festival of New Drama in Wiesbaden; The play was published in the German journal Theater Heute; Premiere in Aachen, Germany; Forest in Glowing: Premiere in Schauspielhaus in Zurich; Milena becomes the first winner of the prize for dramatic creation “Borislav Mihajlović Mihiz,” for the play The Doll Ship; Book of plays by Milena Marković published by Prva srpska čitaonica from Irig; Simeon the foundling , the text commissioned by the Serbian National Theatre on the occasion of the anniversary of Jovan St. Popović (co-production between SNT and Sterijino Pozorje), directed by Tomi Janežič - 2007: Milena receives the Sterija prize for this play; The Doll Ship: Premiere in YDT, directed by Slobodan Unkovski. 2008: Milena and Tomi Janežič are collaborating again - Forest is Glowing, Atelier 212 Theatre.
Poetry: The Dog Who Ate the Sun (publ. Flavio Rigonat); The Truth Has Compelling (publ. LOM / Flavio Rigonat), Black Spoon (LOM).
Film: Wrote screenplay and participated in the shooting of the documentary film The Mining Opera, in Bor, directed by Oleg Novković. After Milena’s screenplay the film Tomorrow Morning, directed by Oleg Novkovic, was shot, production by Zillion Film, Belgrade. |
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First of all, fairy tales are very cruel. Since life is cruel, they represent initiation into the world of adults. It could be otherwise, but seekers have to go through certain bloody rituals. Those rituals mean you have to walk through, to bloody your feet, you have to know or to strike home, you have to have someone who will help you find it. So, Mr. Fate is a very important thing in fairy tales, that mister causes fear and tremor more than anything else. There is no divine in fairy tales, only wondrous. Sometimes those who were well positioned in the beginning do not win, but those who have a miracle. That is why there is one artist in this play. She possesses miracle within her. Beside being a miracle, she is a monster. This, therefore, is not a fairy tale, or it is a fairy tale that ate itself, it is biting its own tale on a bloody merry-go-round. Then, fairy tales are natural. They are physiological, with the existing basic colors and stripped relationships. They are sensual. The best fairy tales do not have a message. Because they are not meant for comfort, but for fortification and for excitement. And they prepare for death. Only monsters and artists remain alive, they are told stories about, and people are frightened.
Milena MARKOVIĆ |
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Darko Rundek (born January 30, 1956) is a Croatian rock singer, songwriter, poet, and actor. His music career started in the early '80s, as the frontman of the world music influenced rock band Haustor. Living in France since 1991, he recorded three albums with various musicians from different parts of the world: U širokom svijetu, Apokalipso and Ruke. The last was a concept album about a group of musicians traveling on a cargo ship.
In 1982 Darko Rundek gained his diploma in theatre Directing from the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb with his graduation performance of America Hurray! by J.C. Van Italie. He went on to direct a number of plays (They say the Owl Once Was the Baker’s Daughter; Three Slaps, Satires from Hekuba, No, Ballads of Petrica Kerempuh...), and also appeared occasionally as an actor. Darko’s principal role in the theatre remains that of composer, with more than 30 productions to his credit, ranging from intimate children’s theatre to international touring performances. Darko Rundek has written and produced much film music, and has occasionally appeared as an actor (Doctor Kljaić in View from the Eiffel Tower, by N. Vukčević; Karlo in 100 minuta Slave, by D. Matanić; Youngster in The Eagle (Orao), by Z. Tadić, Marjan film). He played Herman in J. Burgerfor’s film Ruins (Ruševine), for which he was awarded best male film actor in Slovenia. Between 1982 and 1991, Darko Rundek directed around 50 radio-plays and documentaries for the drama department of radio Zagreb, for which he also wrote the music. Some of these represented radio Zagreb at various international festivals: Prix Italia, Premios Ondas and Prix Futura.
www.darko-rundek.com |
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The missing piece
(...) From one story to the other, from one image to the next, Doll Ship connects the circle of life with the circle of fairy tale with fantastic authorial imagination in a chronological manner, while the stylistic and genre situation change, being a little more or less grotesque, caricature-like, absurd, but even hyper real. A girl stuck in bad company becomes a woman in a good one, even though those categories are turned upside down thanks to the author’s audacity. Then she climbs the social ladder, in order to experience the usual for those who “climb” - ascension/fall and, finally, death, with the desire to “be reborn and lie down into the clean” (the poetic value of the text, strengthened with inter-scenic songs, which are also didaskalies, is the special value of this exciting and very touching play by Milena Marković). (...) Ana Tomović added her imagination to Milena’s raw meaning, played music (again in the footsteps of Brecht), intermittently improving the mood (the tragic humor is already there, which the actors knew how to execute) and rendering it tense, and made an effort to turn the allegory of fairy tale-like motifs (in the play they are present mainly on the level of names / signs) into the constantly present scenic element (the use of masks).
Igor BURIĆ, Dnevnik, September 25 2008
(...) The young director Ana Tomović constructed a radical, imaginative and experimental theatre expression, but she did not experiment where she should not have. The multi-layered, but basically unique character of Woman, who from the generic model woman-as-such differs only in her artistic disposition and the parenting tribulations (she has a child with special needs), in this play one actress plays, and what an actress! (...) Before everything else, Jasna Đuričić, in The Doll Ship, brought an entire gallery of plastic, sharpened and impressive movements, in fact different imprints of the same character in different phases of maturation. Beside the psychological elaboration with the adequate emotional charge, which in some scenes experiences real eruptions - as, for example, in the exhausting scene of the first war between the genders in which Woman is hugging/strangling the Eagle - in the play of Jasna Đuričič one can recognise another layer: a comedic playfulness, sharp, clever and impertinent persiflage. This interweaving finds full justification in the fact that in Milena Marković's piece all the characters and all the phases in the life of Woman are doubled, that they have a copy in (stylised) fairy tale characters. In the last scene, say, Jasna Đuričić brilliantly plays the complex dramatic charactre of a cynical, failed, drunken artist yearning for love, but also an effective caricature of the Witch from Hansel and Gretel, thus offering a real acting key to the genre and stylistic ambivalence of Milena Marković's heroes.
A similar complexity can be recognised in the equally good performance by Radoje Čupić: in the spread between the caricature of a petty bourgeois and the realistic presentation of a dangerous but spent leader of a street gang, he impressively played a few older characters. I am emphasising this because the director made this multi-layered distribution (one actor plays several roles), envisaged in the text, very significant. Only three actors enter the world of Woman, interpreting, in fact, different (generational) aspects of maleness she encounters on the path of initiation: power but weariness (Doc), hypocrisy (Frog), and petty-bourgeois characteristics (Papa Bear) of a mature man (played by Radoje Čupić); snappy nature (Grumpy), assurance, power and dominance (Hunter), the male in full strenth (played by Nenad Pećinar); diffidence and awkwardness (Baby Bear, Sleepy), provocativeness (Eaglet), pugnacity (Eagle) and gentleness (Hansel) of a very young man (played by Radovan Vujović).
(...) The double nature of the psychological characters and atomised characters from fairy tales is marked by one directorial trick: the majority of those characters from fairy tales appear, at least once, with an adequate mask. This, as the majority of other directorial solutions, seems somehow transparent and direct, mixing an unscrupulous stage playfulness with a clever, lethal and meaningful metaphor. In other words, to express playfulness is not the goal in itself, and the stage metaphors are not (only) a material for cold, rational deciphering: the uncompromising play, lethal thought and strong emotion are blended together in a unique theatrical experience. The catalogue of such directorial solutions is infinite: from physical pushing of the unloved daughter-in-law from the couch (on which the entire family is sitting), and which becomes a metaphor of ejection from the house, to the erotic competition for the female between the Hunter and his son, which is metaphorically presented by the father provoking, attacking and most directly stabbing the son with the antlers of his prey.
A significant place in the stage space belongs to the orchestra, which, playing the music of Darko Rundek, follows the actors while they are singing, which has an esthetic function, among other things, to additionally, beside the analysed stage metaphors, deconstruct the paradigm of the classical drama theatre...
Ivan MEDENICA, Vreme, December 11 2008 |
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