Yugoslav Drama Theatre and MESS Festival Sarajevo

Igor Štiks
Dramatization by Darko Lukić

ELIJAH’S CHAIR
Adaptated and directed BORIS LIJEŠEVIĆ

Premiere on October 16, 2010 at 8.30 PM on ‘Bojan Stupica’ Stage
Premiere in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, October 20, 2010

Duration: approx. 1h 25’

Adaptation and direction

Dramaturge

Set Designer

Komposer

ABOUT THE PLAY

What attracted me to this novel was the search for one's father as a search for oneself. I am especially glad that the play was born in YDT, where I had already had a play with this subject – Dear Dad by Milena Bogavac, so that I experienced this as a follow up of sorts, a continuity of my presence at YDT. (...) Darko (Lukić) asked me what it was I'd like to do, he didn't want to make something I wouldn't be able to handle later on. I trusted him, but I knew that I couldn't say anything to him at that point, because whatever I'd say would have lead him in the wrong direction, so I just said he should follow his own inspiration, and that I was to find my way through it afterwards, as I'd do an adaptation anyway. And then he did two versions of the dramatization, both of which I liked a lot.(...) Truth be told, I've found the problems I encountered during the work, problems I didn't know how to solve, very useful. I learned to trust my intuition and the first reading of a play, ideas I get on the first reading. So, from the very start I knew that this play had to have as few characters as possible. Darko had 14 characters, whereas I felt this was a family story and that only those who are the most essential should be present, meaning, family – mother, aunt, father, son, girlfriend, as well as sister and friend. I didn't know how, but I did know that it was through these six persons that the story had to be told. So, through the search for solution, the form imposed itself.

 Boris Liješević

ABOUT THE NOVEL ELIJAH’S CHAIR

In the novel Elijah’s Chair, Igor Štiks describes the unusual fate of Richard Richter, an Austrian writer about to turn fifty. Following an emotional crisis and marriage breakdown, the hero leaves Paris to return to his hometown of Vienna, where he finds his mother’s hidden notebook. Its shocking contents, written in the dramatic circumstances of 1941, thoroughly transform Richter’s own life. The writer decides to find his roots and his quest leads him to the wartime Sarajevo, where he arrives at the very start of the siege. During his short stay in Sarajevo he experiences the most beautiful moments of his life – a passionate love and a true friendship. However, his life, just like the lives of all other characters in the novel, is determined by fate that he, just like the heroes of a Greek tragedy, cannot evade and cannot influence.

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ABOUT THE WRITER

Igor Štiks (1977) was born in Sarajevo. In 1992, when war in Bosnia began, he moved to Zagreb. He studied comparative literature and philosophy at the University of Zagreb, and received his master degree in philosophy from the University of Paris. He is the writer of two novels, The Castle in Romagna and Elijah’s Chair. Castle in Romagna was awarded Croatia’s Best First Novel prize, and Elijah’s Chair was pronounced the book of the year in Croatia in 2006. He lives and works in Edinburgh.

ABOUT THE WRITER OF THE DRAMATISATION

Darko Lukić was born in 1962. He received his B.A. in Comparative Literature, Theatre Studies and Philosophy and an M.A. in Dramaturgy. He studied in New York, Copenhagen, Salzburg and Avignon. He translates from English and Spanish, mainly dramatic texts. For 23 years he has been active as a publicist, dramatic and prose writer, a dramaturge, theatre producer, theatre pedagogue and General Manager of theatres and Director of festivals. He teaches Theatre Production and Management at the Department of Production at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb. His plays have been translated into English, Romanian, Italian, French, Spanish, German and Polish.

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ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Boris Liješević was born in Belgrade in 1976. He completed high-school in Budva. He became a final year student of Faculty of Philosophy of Novi Sad, Department of Serbian Language and Literature, in 1999. He graduated from the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad in 2004, where he now works as Assistant Professor at the Department of Intermedia Direction. 
As assistant director, he worked on the productions directed by Jagos Markovic, Boro Draskovic, Ljuboslav Majera, Omar Abu el Rub. For several years, he worked as a collaborator in productions directed by Tomi Janezic. As a scholarship holder of Goethe Institut, in 2005 he took part in the seminar of ‘Forum junger Buehneangehoeriger’, as a part of the festival ‘Theatertreffen’ in Berlin.
Boris Liješević directed plays: Among the Decor of the Soul and Phoenix for Theatre of Changes, Academy of Arts, Novi Sad; Two Gentlemen of Verona, Amateurs’ Theatre ‘Zmaj’, Irig; The Municipality Child, National Theatre Kikinda; Belgrade London (a part of the project ‘Belgrade Stories 04’, Students’ Culture Centre, Belgrade); Presence, Atelje 213, Greta Page 89, Serbian National Theatre, Novi Sad; Dear Dad, Yugoslav Drama Theatre; Look Back in Anger, National Theatre Belgrade and Culture Centre Pancevo; Bestiarium, SNT Novi Sad; Kid in Milk, Young People’s Theatre, Novi Sad; Projection, National Theatre Sombor; Waiting Room, Atelje 213, Belgrade and Culture Centre Pancevo.
Awards: Sterija Award for Authors’ Project of the Play Waiting Room, 2010, Projection, Best Play Award at Festival of Monologues and Small Stages in Eastern Sarajevo, 2010, Greta page 89 Best Play Award at Actors’ Fesitval in Niksic in 2010.
He lives and works between Belgrade, Novi Sad and Budva.

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REVIEWS

The search for one’s origins, which in a sense has an unveiled mythical and universal dimension, in this play as well as in the novel, makes the drama into one of those dealing with issues of personal identity, often seen on stages these days. The ‘injured identity’ presented in these dramas as the central issue, certainly has an inevitable impact on our time, where "wandering identities" become almost a universal phenomenon, particularly visible in traumatic times of war. The dynamics of this heartbreaking story, telling about a person placed between its intimate problems and the cruel "pliers of history", is being built around the testimony on the still fresh memories about the shocking events in Sarajevo in the first half of the nineties.
Ana Isaković, Danas

In the play Eliah’s Chair the director Boris Liješević went the longest way in this creation of the special theatre of applied acting, so to speak, the theatre in which one plays upon a situation, upon a confession, on an experience, a context, an idea or attitude .. and not on a particular trait or character (...) Svetozar Cvetković coped very successfully with this minimalistic playing on the narrative. He tells a story and carries fragments of a character or an action where ever he goes and is constantly present and clear. (...)Then, there is Đuza Stojiljković who played all the old men in the - the Wandering Jew, a mysterious character from the local gossip and the empty synagogue in Sarajevo during the bombings. He also plays the editor in chief of the News company the sent Cvetković into Sarajevo to report, and of course he plays the father, the one Jew who survived Hitler's death factory, for the devastation and the tragedy in Sarajevo!
(...)Renata Ulmanski complimented him with a great performance too. With her vast experience and talent, she brought a Bernhardovian depth into the story of the Jews (...) But - a true jewel of this play was the young actress Maja Izetbegović from Sarajevo, who played the unfortunate young actress in an occupied Sarajevo. (…)
This has been another, deeply responsible move of the Board of the Yugoslav Drama Theatre, and it seems to me that they will once again find their way into history – of understanding, forgiveness, regret, a deep comprehension of the tragedy of time and history.
Goran Cvetković, Radio Beograde II

In an empty space, accompanied by a few piano accords and the smell of roasted coffee, Liješević creates a gentle essay about pain. The play is about the agony of a man who does not know whom he belong to, about people in disappearance, about a wounded city. The role of the Actress from Sarajevo is played by the twenty-five years old actress Maja Izetbegović from Sarajevo.
What declarations can not express, the theatre can. In the silent prayer, in the poetic blending of images is also the confrontation and forgiveness. As Richter, who at his fifties searches for his real father, Svetozar Cvetković really cries. This indeed a great, great role of his! In an analytical peace of mind Đuza Stojiljković carries both the biblical and the earthly fate of the expelled. Đuza, a myth and an icon. A precise and exact Renata Ulmanski. Being  well aware of the power of the text, the director Liješević solves intimate questions of the epoch by sublimated touches.
Branka Krilović, Daily News RTS

Mighty Acting Trio Provoced Tears in the ZKM Theatre In Zagreb
The story of the play Elijah’s Chair, written according to the novel of Igor Štiks, is a very heavy one. Through the search for the identity of a certain man, Štiks breaks the two hardest themes of the 20th century – which are the Holocaust and the war occupation of Sarajevo.(...) Excellent actors. Led by Svetozar Cvetković, who plays Richard Richter, a man dedicated to the search for any data about his own father, he is the one for whom you cry in the darkness of the theater. There's no wasting of acting skills here. Everything is toned down, just as it is in the life of the man who ignores obvious signs of rushing into a tragedy. And everything is perfect – the acting is balanced and well executed. The actress Maja Izetbegović from Sarajevo plays his “found” true love. And his sister. Despite her young age, she plays her role incredibly mature and manages to present a total innocence and a complete ignorance. Because, he will get out of Sarajevo and kill himself, with the final aim to prevent the knowledge about the incest to destroy her life as well.
The powerful acting trio on the stage was brought to fulfillment by Vlastimir Đuza Stojiljković. Zagreb was lucky this year to have a chance to see him in even three major roles – the role in the play Father on Business Trip, the Glembays and now in the Elijah’s Chair. And, the popular Đuza, as he was also called in Zagreb theatres, along with a loud "Bravo!", was born in 1929. His indestructible acting excellence and the lasting willingness with which he still throws himself into the hardest acting challenges is therefore even more striking. As well as the ease with which he master them all.
Bojana Radović, Večernji list, Zagreb

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ON TOUR AND AWARDS

1. Festival MESS Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 20 October 2010
2. Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 10 & 11 April 2011
3. Pančevo, Serbia, 28 April 2011
4. 45th BITEF 11, Belgrade, 17 September 2011

Grand Prix Mira Trailović for the best production

1. Festival in One Act (Festival u jednom dejstvu), Mladenovac, Serbia, 5 Oktober 2011
2. ZeKaeM, Zagreb, Croatia, 17 Oktober 2011
3. 31st Theatre Festival Bora Stanković (31. Borini pozorišni dani), Vranje, Serbia, 22 October 2011