Yugoslav Drama Theatre

BORN IN YU

Director Dino Mustafić

Premiere: 12 October, 2010, Yugoslav Drama Theatre, Ljuba Tadić Stage

Team of Dramaturgs

Milena Bogavac
Maja Pelević
Filip Vujošević
Božo Koprivica
Miloš Krečković

Set Designer

Dragutin Broz

Maja Mirković i Biljana Tegeltija

Composer

Radovan

ABOUT THE PLAY

This play rests upon the souls of the actors participating in the show, their accounts, their memories, their emotions and what Yugoslavia represented for them, not only as a political or geographical fact, but, among others, a spiritual space through which they had grown up, had their romances, their good and bad moments in life, something that was in fact their memory module. For this very reason, a generationally heterogeneous cast, from Branka Petric, the eldest, to Rasa Vujovic, the youngest one, born towards the very end of Yugoslavia’s existence, speaks of the fact that having been born in the same country does not necessarily mean we share the same feelings for it, or same memories, so to speak. In some, there is a certain sense of bitterness, a shattered illusion, reduction of freedom, in others there is also a certain melancholy or sentiment. So, I believe that the show that came to be did so from an ambivalent feeling for this country that is no more. We have been aware that this is a cathartic process for all of us, meant to confront us with ourselves, make us question ourselves and the correlation of ourselves as individuals, as existences, with a space that is no more. So, we addressed the question of what happens to our identities (identity is a construction) when a country disappears.

Dino Mustafic

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

DINO MUSTAFIĆ
Born in 1969 in Sarajevo. Graduated from the department of Directing from the Theatre Academy and department of Literature from the Faculty of Philosophy.
Directed the plays Runaway of Life (1993), Let There Be Light (1994), Miracle in Bosnia (1995), 724 (1998), plays by  Sartre, Ionesko, Mrožek, Moliere, Coltes, Shakespeare, Thornton Wilder, Schwab, Dorfmann, Gardner, Dea Loher, Nick Wood, Glowacki, Ingmar Vilkvist, Boichev, the opera Cavalleria Rusticana. 
Directed documentaries, music shows. His film Remake, written by Zlatko Topčić, participated in international festivals in  Rotterdam, Montreal, Karlovy Vary, Istanbul, Prague, Rome, Monaco, San Francisco and Belgrade. 
Director of the International Theatre Festival MESS in Sarajevo.

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FROM REVIEWS

... We should be aware of the artistic importance of this researching project in the context of our institutional theater, as well as of the emotional and psychological importance that posing the painful question of what a Yugoslav identity, which we have been deprived of, or transformed into a taboo, means to each of us today.

Ivan Medenica, NIN

The main character of the latest play by the Yugoslav Drama Theatre is, in fact our own memories and experiences presented with a certain amount of sentiment, some melancholy and a certain amount of nostalgia for the country that no longer exists and all the opportunities it did present to its citizens.

Željko Jovanović, Blic

... The emotional power and researches of various experiences related to the space that, by the definition of the play, was primarily emotional, makes this piece different from, one can freely say, the classical post-dramatic theatre. Namely, the very insistence on strong and direct emotions do the trick of avoiding the biggest trap in usual dealing with issues about former Yugoslavia – pathetical feelings – and thus allows an individual emotional experience to take a rather cold and thoughtful dramatic structure.

Ivan Jovanović, City magazine

The play is very honest and personal - the actors tell their most intimate memories, which are arranged in a common experience of the collective memory, thus giving birth to the spirit of an authentic tragedy. The play has an undoubted peak in the confession of the Branka Petrić, about her life in several countries within the family made up of several nationalities. The most touching part of this confession, told without any pathetic touch, superiorly above her own intimate pain, was the part about Bekim Fehmiu, the great actor, her husband, who took his own life only a couple of months ago, being never in peace with his loss of identity that was killed by the death of the state in which we all were born. A long, durable applause to Branka Petrić came when she told the audience a few words in Albanian language, such as - father, mother, good evening and - I love you!

Goran Cvetković, Radio Belgrade II

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