GUEST PERFORMANCE BY THE ISTANBUL CITY THEATRE WITH A PRODUCTION OF WAR AND PEACE
READ MOREThe spring section of the YDT repertoire will include two guest performances by theatre troupes from abroad. In April we will host a guest performance of the Istanbul City Theatre closely followed by the Beijing People’s Art Theatre in May. This is a rare opportunity to watch productions by leading theatres from Türkiye and China. Tickets for both guest performances are available from our Box office.
The performance of the Istanbul City Theatre (Türkiye) production of War and Peace by Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy, directed by Aleksandar Popovski, is scheduled for Sunday, 21st April at 7pm on our Ljuba Tadić main stage. Duration 3 hours and 25 minutes with one interval. This is an exchange performance by the theatre from Türkiye which hosted two very successful guest performances of Oedipus last January.
I have always wondered whether love was possible in the times of war and great crises, though I already knew the answer. Those two words – War and Peace still resound everywhere around us. Often I think back of the poster held by Yoko Ono and John Lennon with the words – WAR is over. The way things are in the world right now, it seems to me that the words on our poster should read – PEACE is over – says Aleksandar Popovski who directed the production of Candide at the YDT (and for which he received the Sterijino Pozorje Award), Metamorphoses and Hamlet. The most recent production directed by Popovski is that of Alice and Fearland, based on the eponymous work by Eva Mahkovic, and which is still part of the YDT repertoire.
Popovski remained true to his long term associates which is why he entrusted the set design for War and Peace to Sven Jonke and Vanja Magić and the text adaptation to Eva Mahkovic herself. In Istanbul, Aleksandar Popovski worked with an ensemble made up of experienced and renowned actors but also with ten actors belonging to a new generation handpicked from an audition where nearly 400 people applied. He says that the combination of Turkish theatre and Tolstoy was a joy to work with and that he was sure the Belgrade audiences would feel the same way.
Photo Nesrin Kadıoğlu