Bitef festival e-bulletin

written by: Arthur Skelton, adjudicator, lecturer and critic. Guest of 43th Bitef.

The last play I was able to see during this year’s festival was the Serbian National Theatre’s  production of “The Ship of Dolls’ written by Milena Markovic, and directed by Ana Tomovic.

In fairness, I am bound to say thatseveral allowances have to made for the particular performance I saw.  This was obviously one which was squeezed between two other major presentations on the Sava Centar main stage.  The difference here was that both audience and players occupied the stage space.  A raked seating structure was assembled on the vast downstage space where members of the audience sat with their backs to the main auditorium.  In front of this, a further four rows were added at floor level which, as much of the opening action took place literally on the floor, caused immediate problems with audience sightlines.   Additionally,  the superscript operated high above the stage and immediately below a row of stage lanterns which allowed the English translation to be read clearly only when the stage action required the lights to be dimmed.  Read more

Sorry, this entry is only available in Srpski.

Performance “Airport Kids”, in the production of Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne from Switzerland, obviously provoked interests among the visitors of this year’s Bitef festival, which is reconfirmed by the fact that it has taken one of the first three places according to the audience votes. At the roundtable discussion after the performance, we had the chance to hear the producers and the participants themselves but there is the third party involved which, by no means, should be overlooked – the parents. Marion Clement, Clyde’s mom, has given us some of her time to share her opinion about the project. We send her our warm thanks and we hope you will enjoy the interview.

We have heard form Clyde that you encouraged him to take part in the project. What were your reasons for that? We know he wants to be an actor but would you have done the same even if he didn’t have that ambition?

Marion Clement: Clyde is happy when he’s on stage. That’s why I encouraged him to take part in this project. As every mother does, I prefer to see my son smiling. As he says it in the show himself, Clyde is hyperactive – he suffers from TDHA: trouble of attention with or without hyperactivity – and this is a serious trouble for a young boy. I can’t really know if I would have encouraged him if he didn’t want to be an actor. He is “born” to be an actor I think. In fact he’s always playing a role, imitating somebody, or trying to make people laugh. I am not sure if this is an ambition or rather his real nature. Read more

Sorry, this entry is only available in Srpski.

The jury of the „Politika” at the 43^rd Bitef festival has decided to award the prize to director Robert Lepage for the performance “The Blue Dragon”, played by the troupe Ex Machina.

The members of this year’s jury were Muharem Pervić, Radojica Džunić, Marija Janković, Borka Trebješanin and Ana Tasić.

This year’s laureate will get the oil painting “Pearl Light” by Slobodanka Rakić Šefer. The award will be given at the beginning of October.

The official announcement:

Robert Lepage’s directing approach is marked by luxurious visual expression and by an elaborate synthesis of various media. His theatre language is lucidly developed under the influence of film and theatre expression and it stems from a wish to modernize the theatre language, from the wish to approach the contemporary audience and the adequate reflection of the changes in the social context.