With the sentence "due to Serbia's political attitude towards the war in Ukraine, the hosting of the Serbian theater is not possible" was announced yesterday from Prague. The Serbian theater in question in this email is the independent Trinidad from Novi Sad, and their performance is hosted Breaking news the city theater MDP from Ptago cancels. Its authors are Minja Bogavac and Marko Grbić, and its actors are Mina Nikolić and Đorđe Živanović Grgur.
That's how the show is. Breaking news became the first Serbian collateral victim in Russia's war with Ukraine. Or, a victim of Serbia's attitude towards that war.
A performance Breaking news is an independent production, so there is no institution behind it and therefore no state, but independent artists who, in truth, live in Serbia.
"All this is terrifying," Minja Bogavac told Vreme. "I don't know if it is an isolated case, the fear of a small director of a small theater for his salary and his attempt to prove himself to someone, or if the decision is systemic."
Minja Bogavac says that she cannot help but notice the explicitness and calling a spade a spade in the letter canceling their visit.
"They directly announced that they are canceling our hosting due to political reasons." In our country, they say that - because of technical reasons."
Breaking news deals with the phenomenology of mass communication media in modern society, it is a dynamic, tragicomic staging of a study of the nature of modern media and their influence on the psyche of the individual, as well as on social patterns of behavior - it is written in the program of the play.
"The play has nothing to do with Serbia, it is not political, it is very humorous. It applies to everyone," adds Minja Bogavac.
"In Serbia, they cancel us because they think we are against the state." Abroad, they also cancel us, because they think we are a country... In short: wherever I stand, I stand on the wrong side!... And the devil knows which side is right here... In any case, I am always on the side that is - canceled , and then I enjoy the reputation of a 'forbidden author'... And really, but exactly that - the realest and most sincere, I don't have any emotion in me, like anger," wrote Bogavac in a comment for "Danas".
A guest appearance at the MDP city theater in Prague was scheduled for April 7. Colleagues from Prague were, says Minja Bogavac, happy to host them, negotiations and agreements took several months, and now, here, only one sentence has arrived.
Neither Trinidad, nor the authors of the play, called anyone and asked for an additional explanation.
"There is no need, it's clear," says Minja Bogavac. "I'm just worried, is it going to be like this all the time?"
S.Ć.
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