The play of Hamlet in the village of Mrduša Donja” is indisputably one of the best and most important contemporary Croatian plays. In it, Brešan mercilessly depicted the tragic consequences that totalitarian ideology leads to in conjunction with an ineradicable primitive mentality.
Since only two things are infinite, as Einstein says, namely the universe and human stupidity, Brešan’s piece, unfortunately, becomes especially relevant in our age when knowledge is devalued, and disinformation spreads like wildfire, opening up space for potentially disastrous ideologies and serious manipulations.
This play, with puppetry elements and a balance between comedy and tragedy, has shown show the extraordinary vitality and relevance of this classic of contemporary Croatian drama.
In this drama, God is defined as the creator of language that speaks the truth about us and among us. Thus, God is the language of freedom directed against power and its covenants of which the strongest is found in the structures of clericalism.
Pope Francis, urbi et orbi, announced that clericalism is the greatest sin of the Christian church and branded the structure of the power within the Church an act of Satan. This structure, in turn, calls Pope Francis the Anarchist.
The historical struggle in which the mousetrap was set in the play “Pope Francis wrestles with his angel” was achieved with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Media and the City of Zadar and Zadar County.
The play premiered at Teatro VeRRdi’s festival “Nosi se” in summer 2021.
Emma Stanton’s thesis play, No Candy, centers around multi-generational, multi-ethnic Bosnian women who run a gift shop near the Srebrenica memorial, and how they cope, both privately and publicly, with the traumas they experienced during the war. No Candy is about how trauma inhabits the body and shapes a community. But it is also about the persistence of humor, art and absurdity in an unimaginable time. World premiere at Portland Playhouse, Jan 2019.
The year 2016 marks 400 years since the death of William Shakespeare. No other playwright in history has achieved similar success. Mia Zara has merged five of his most famous plays (Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummers Nights’ Dream, Othello, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing) and created a love story for The National Theatre 22. summer festival.
From Shakespeare with love“ brings a collection of Shakespeare’s thoughts and views about love, masterfully crafted in a language still preserved today. The story is told by two lovers Elizabeth( Mia Zara) and William( Nicholas Bright) who are faced with all the gifts love can bring to a couple. From the fruitful ones to those bitter. The play is performed in an excellently preserved renaissance palace Grisogono Vovo in Zadar. The atmosphere is enhanced by a live classical guitar player Melita Ivković performing John Downland’s compositions.
The end-of-year production Mnogolozi( Lots-o-logues) has been created during the workshops where each actor chose their own monologue and worked on the character. After research, we have merged the monologues of all 20 actors into one story and created a play where everyone had a lot to say about everything.
Granice ( Boundaries) is a performance piece exploring individual boundaries we carry throughout life with us. The inspiration is drawn from personal experience. Each performer has chosen the most dominant boundary of their current life to explore and has performed it in an hour-long exhibition in the space otherwise known as the State’s archive in the middle of the city centre. The audience had the opportunity to walk around the space and watch each performer continuously exposing its topic. The aim was to feel the creation during the performance rather than perform something created in rehearsals.
Hrvatsko Narodno Kazaliste Zadar( The National Theatre in Zadar) has celebrated the 70th anniversary of its existence by producing an all-female cast play House of Bernarda Alba by Federico Garcia Lorca. The play was directed by Drazen Ferencina.
The drama of women in the villages of Spain centers on the events of a house in Andalusia during a period of mourning, in which Bernarda Alba (aged 60) wields total control over her five daughters Angustias (39 years old), Magdalena (30), Amelia (27), Martirio, (24), and Adela (20). The housekeeper (La Poncia) and Bernarda’s elderly mother (María Josefa) also live there.
The deliberate exclusion of any male character from the action helps build up the high level of sexual tension that is present throughout the play.
Mia Zara portrayed the character of Magdalena.
Teatroplov is a play created during the first year of the theatre workshop Backstage, which Mia established in autumn 2014. The participants have shown scenes from each theatre era, starting from Ancient Greece, continuing with Shakespeare, Commedia del arte, romanticism, modernism, theatre of the absurd, existentialism to the current theatre pieces. The play is visually enriched with shadows performed by the actors when they are not speaking their lines / performing in their scenes.
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Mia Zara explored a woman’s role in today’s society by directing and acting in a performance called “Žene” (Women). The project started as a workshop, attended by 5 women in different age groups. Each of the actresses presented their autobiographical piece using the other performers as light, music, and sound.
The audience could witness an art installation exploring the themes of adolescence and maturity, pregnancy and creation of life, breaking out of the stereotypical frames of narrow-minded people, mothers’ sacrifice, gossips.
Cast: Maruška Aras, Mia Zara, Iman Louise Rozga, Ivana Matković, Ivana Saraga
Crew: Melinda Vrkić, Zlata Granić
Sponsors: Plesna Udruga U Pokretu, Centar Nezavisne Kulture
In a plead to save an old derelict theatre in her hometown, Mia has produced Sartre’s No Exit. The old abandoned walls of the theatre’s stage seemed like a perfect set design for Mia’s adaptation of the piece. Black walls and one single light bulb placed in the middle of the set gave this production an eerie atmosphere which blended the performances and a message into a fine harmony.
The production received sold-out tickets before the run, excellent media reviews, and an introduction to fringe theatre in Zadar. This was Mia’s directing debut.
This London premiere stars Mia Zara (Poe: Macabre Ressurections), who inspired playwright Don Fried to compose this play and envision Zara in the lead role.
“Blood Privilege is a feminist powerhouse; the Countess Elizabeth Bathory could be the Hedda Gabler of 16th Century Hungary” – Horror Talk (New York Premiere)
The historical Elizabeth Bathory was orphaned and vulnerable early in life although she rose up to become one of the most formidable women in Europe. She was not left untouched by her struggle for power: Elizabeth is rumored to have tortured and murdered over 600 women. Her exigent life was one of the inspirations behind the vampire myths.
In Blood Privilege, Fried looks behind the legend to where truth, myth, and horror collide, and together with McQuade (Best Theatre Director, Fringe Report 2012) explore the corruption that comes with absolute power and the doom that pursues those who desire it.
Blood Privilege will also feature Game of Thrones actor Ross Mullan as King Matthias, as well as Second Skin Theatre’s Dan Shelton (Quills) and George Collie (The Christmas Dinner).
Blood Privilege by Don Fried plays at the White Rabbit Theatre, 125 Stoke Newington Church Street, N16 0UH from 27th March to 14th April 2013.