Tomorrow, September 13, the 59th Bitef will start in Belgrade, and performances will be shown in the next week.
About thirty hours before the start of the festival, and according to the website, for Venetian merchant KPGT which opens the 59th Bitef less than 10 percent of tickets are left, three shows are sold out Russian blues (Russia, accompanying program), stalker (Georgia) and Antigone (Turkey) and with the titles of the other performances, there is no indication of sold tickets, which means that there are still tickets available.
As in previous years, the announcement conference of the 59th Bitefa was held outside Belgrade, this time in the environment of the family resort "Zdravkovac" on the slopes of Rudnik, in the village of Jarmenovac in the municipality of Topola. It is a custom started when Ivan Medenica was the selector, that the presentation of the program of the new edition is an opportunity to get acquainted with a touristic place.
Supporting program and jury
As we have already written, Spasoje Ž. Milovanović has chosen seven plays from Bulgaria, Moldova, Georgia, Turkey, Serbia and Tunisia.
Photo: Promo/Tanja DrobnjakSpasoje Ž. Milovanović
In "Zdravkovac" it was learned that the festival also has an accompanying program with a dance performance from Russia, as well as round tables with discussions about the performances led by Bojan Munjin and Jelena Kajgo, as well as members of the jury who will evaluate the performances.
The president of the jury is the German film and theater actor Werner Dean. The members are director and manager of the Bulgarian National Theater "Ivan Vazov" Vasil Vasilev, Turkish actor, director and producer Kadri Ozzum, costume designer Irena Beloica and playwright Molina Fotez Udovicki, both from Serbia.
Coach's personal choice
Journalists invited to a meeting with Spasoj Ž. Milovanović was interested in how the new selection came about
Given that this is a subsequent selection, chosen because six plays from the one presented in June canceled their arrival at Bitef, journalists were interested in how Spasoje Ž. Milovanović came to them: were they reserve performances of his selection or a completely new selection.
"These performances are my personal choice, they are not connected with earlier announcements," answered the selector Milovanović.
On the shows that refused to come to Bitef, he said "I already forgot about it".
"Performances" announced in June I no longer treat it as part of anything at all. That's perfect for me. As important as it may appear to be, it is essentially complete nonsense. Just as any attempt at obstruction for some kind of day-to-day political reasons is complete nonsense. And we have witnessed this on the topic of a whole series of festivals, especially in the last two years. Daily politics is not called daily politics by chance, but tomorrow will be something completely different. I am sorry that we are forced to deal with it”.
Ljuša's provocation?
About seven plays from the new selection we wrote earlier.
So: 59th Bitef begins The Merchant of Venice, a play by KPGT directed by Strahinja Padežanin, with Slobodan Beštić in the role of Shylock.
The play is performed in "Atelje 212" even though it is in the regular repertoire of KPGT, which was interpreted by the public as a provocation by Ljubiša Ristić.
If anyone doesn't know, Ljubiša Ristić officially left KPGT, the theater he founded, at the beginning of the summer in order to be appointed acting director of "Atelje 212". This caused great indignation of both the ensemble and the public. The fact that KPGT is moving the performance to its new theater, even for one day, was seen as a provocation.
Milovanović believes that they are creators Venetian merchant "obscenely provocative on the subject of everyday life". He points out that Strahinja Padežanin connected this Shakespeare play with our time by moving it to the year 1938 "at the time of the law of fascist Italy on the prohibition of Jewish activities, on the abolition of their civil rights."
It should be remembered that Egon Savin in 2004 Venetian merchant also moved to the thirties and that it was an extremely successful performance by the Yugoslav Drama Theater. Shylock was Predrag Eidus.
Bitef and not:Bitef
This year's Bitef will close with a performance on September 20 Runaways Wafe Taboubi in the production of the National Theater of Tunisia, about people who are waiting - waiting to escape, for something to change, for life to move on. But waiting here is not a gap between two events, it just becomes an event. Waiting in this way is growing into a new type of prison, said Spasoje Ž. Milovanović pointed out that this play was the absolute winner of the All-Arab Theater Festival held last year in Cairo.
On that day, September 20th, at 60 locations in the city will take place not:Bitef in honor of the 60th year since the theater festival of world avant-garde theater was founded in Belgrade, one of the trademarks of the city - Bitef. It will be attended by more than 100 internationally known names who have left their mark on Bitef's past life and made it famous.
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