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Concept, Direction Sanja MITROVIĆ
Dramaturge Felix RITTER
Artistic advisor Vladimir TUPANJAC
Light design Erik GRAMBERG
Sound design Vladimir RAKIĆ
Costume design Dejan DOŠLJAK
Subtitles
Richard De BOER, Vladimir TUPANJAC
Premiere:
September 26th 2008 |
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PERFORMERS |
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Sanja MITROVIĆ |
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Jochen STECHMANN |
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P E R F O R M A N C E...... |
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| NATIONALITY AND PERSONAL IDENTITY |
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Will You Ever Be Happy Again? is a Serbian-Dutch co-production, premiered at the distinguished festival Bitef in September 2008 in Belgrade, and in October 2008 in hetveem theatre in Amsterdam. At the Festival Premiere in Strasbourg (June '09) it was considered one of the most interesting performances within the Europian Scene For Young Directors selection. After its successful showings at prestigious festivals in Serbia, The Netherlands, France, Switzerland and Bosnia, the performance continues touring in the season 2009/2010. WYEBHA? is selected for the Serie Nieuwe Theatermakers Tour-Blind Date organised by Theater Instituut Nederland and it will have its Dutch tour in April 2010.
“Are we ever going to be happy again?” the German nation asked themselves at the end of the Second World War. A significant part of the Serbian population is facing the same question in the wake of the new millennium. The Germans called that moment "hour zero", to symbolise their desire for a fresh start. But this appeared to be an illusion, because one can’t escape one’s own history; one can only hope to survive it. Will You Ever Be Happy Again? is a piece for one Serbian and one German performer. Developed around authentic autobiographical accounts of its performers, Will You Ever Be Happy Again? employs documentary strategies to explore how nationality influences one’s personal identity. This issue has been acutely pertinent to both Serbia and Germany, which, at different points in their national histories, have been perceived in negative terms within the international community.
Will You Ever Be Happy Again? is structured as a succession of performative situations, based, among others, on childhood games, primary school classes and sporting events. The performers' personal and collective memories outline the narratives of good vs. bad, of victim vs. criminal, and how these distinctions can easily be turned upside down. The German performer relates his family memories, the period after the Second World War and the Cold War era. The Serbian performer reflects on her childhood in the 1980s, the ethnic conflicts and disintegration of the Former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, and the recent experience of becoming a Dutch citizen. Counter–pointing and mirroring each other’s cultural and historical backgrounds, they attempt to approach the problem of self–representation, the way one looks at the other, and the urge to see oneself through the eyes of another.
Will You Ever Be Happy Again? is poised between documentary material and its theatrical interpretation. Shifting from a straightforward address to allusion to quotation, and relying on an oblique exploitation of historical images and poetic expressions, the work swings from research to a ritual game that creates imaginary parallels between the two countries, repeating History just like History always seems to repeat itself.
 The Play Programme |
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S E L E C T O R ' S...R E P O R T...... |
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Serbian Dutch woman, performer, actress, a complete theatre author
of increasingly prominent reputation in European theatre frames
– Sanja Mitrović, together with the German performer Johenn
Stehmann, made a touching, intimate, deeply personal story that
concerns all of us who grew up in the former Yugoslavia and still
remember that country once existed. Through the ID of the author
on the one, and the young German on the other side, transferred
through a children’s play and a situation of growing up in Yugoslavia
and Germany in the 1980s, an incredible mix of emotions and humour,
with which the audience often does not know what to do, is
acquired. For the story is so truly simple and tragic and interwoven
with such facility and skill, the viewer can hardly decide between
laughing and crying. That is why only silence remains at the end.
But luckily, Sanja Mitrović is sufficiently skillful to offer the audience
vast pleasure and joy of life through positive vibration her directorial
stamp bears, which was proven at numerous festivals across Europe
where she has performed this fantastic play.
Nikola ZAVIŠIĆ |
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SANJA MITROVIĆ
Director, author and performer, born in Serbia, since 2001
living and working in the Netherlands. Graduated in Japanese
language and literature from Faculty of Philology, University
of Belgrade in 2004, and Mime Department, Amsterdamse
Hogschool voor de Kunsten in 2005.
In her work Mitrovic explores the relationship between factuality
and fiction in the performative act. In the last years
she has focused on creating a socially and politically engaged
theatre which reflects both the processes of change
within European society and pressing issues in a broader
transnational framework, such as immigration, political and
cultural integration, nationalism, and social and economic
affairs. Her works are based on the principle of “dialectical
montage”, juxtaposing diverse means of expression, including
contemporary theatre, mime, dance, spoken word and
visual arts. As documentary material she often uses personal
testimonies, which I contrast with official historical accounts.
Her recent performances include Dhanu (2005), Shame (2006),
and Books Once Read Make A Good Bullet Proofing (2007). Will
You Ever Be Happy Again? (2008) was shown to critical success
at the international theatre and dance festivals in The Netherlands,
Serbia, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany and Bosnia and
Herzegovina. With this production, Sanja Mitrović has been nominated
for the BNG Nieuwe Theatermakers Prijs 2010 organized
by Theater Instituut Nederland, in the category for the best new
director. For more information about the performance please visit:
willyoueverbehappyagain.wordpress.com
Her collaboration with choreographer Nicole Beutler culminated
in the solo performance 1: SONGS that is nominated for VSCD
Mime Prize 2010. From 2007 Mitrovic works as an advisor and
mentor for the students of Mime department (Theaterschool –
AHK) where, as guest teacher, she gives a workshop for the third
years students on Actual Theatre. She is the founder and artistic
director of Stand Up Tall Productions, Amsterdam. Her new production A Short History of Crying will premiere in 2010.
sanjamitrovic.blogspot.com |
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Sanja Mitrović’s portrayal of the youth she spent in war-torn ex-Yugoslavia is not only entertaining, but highly thought-provoking. Despite the simple and reduced means she employs, the effect of the evening lingers for a long time.
Dr. Michaela PREINER, European News Agency, Strasbourg, June 2009
A fresh and beautiful engaging performance, with performers whom you would want to watch time and again, regardless of whether you’re German, Serb or Dutch.
Robert van HEUVEN, 8weekly, Amsterdam, October 2008
With talent, humour and sensitivity Sanja Mitrović’s draws a parallel between the ideological mechanisms inherited from Tito and those of global capitalism, her education under Slobodan Milošević and sport spectacles. With no accommodating attitude, she paints a portrait of herself and of her generation who endured the end of the strong government and the Balkan wars between schizophrenia, medieval patriotism and modern dreams.
Thomas FLAGEL, Poly Magazine, Strasbourg, June 2009 |
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