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Servisch , Duits gesproken

Frans en Nederlans ondertiteld

 

 

De in Amsterdam wonende Servische theatermaakster en performer Sanja Mitrovic is een artistiek fenomeen. Op de eerste editie van BITS(&pieces) bracht ze op miricaleuze wijze het publiek in vervoering als performer in Nicole Beutler’s “1:Songs. A solo for missing choir”. Met haar eigen “Will You Ever Be Happy Again?’ verbaasde ze voorheen reeds theatergangers van het prestigieuze BITEF Festival in Belgrado tot het Züricher Theater Spektakel. “Will You Ever Be Happy Again?” maakt gebruik van documentaire strategieën om de invloed van nationaliteit op persoonlijke identiteit te analyseren. Mitrović kiest doelbewust voor een opzet van de voorstelling waarbij het persoonlijke perspectief op het oorlogsverleden van Duitsland en Servië voorop staat. In “Will You Ever Be Happy Again?” onderzoekt Mitrović hoe kinderlijke onschuld zich verhoudt tot het zware verleden van naties als Duitsland en Servië. Wanneer ontwikkelen kinderen een historisch besef? Waar beginnen hun schuldgevoelens? En hoe ontstaan hun vooroordelen?

Als basis voor de voorstelling gebruikt ze autobiografisch materiaal van haarzelf en haar Duitse medeperformer Jochen Stechman: gebeurtenissen uit hun kindertijd, zoals spelletjes, de basisschool, sportdagen. Persoonlijk verhalen over goed tegenover kwaad, slachtoffer tegenover dader en hoe de rollen gemakkelijk omgedraaid kunnen worden. Samen roepen ze parallellen op tussen twee landen met een niet al te fris verleden. De geschiedenis herhaalt zich zoals de geschiedenis zich altijd lijkt te herhalen.

 

 

concept/regie: Sanja Mitrović

performers: Sanja Mitrović, Jochen Stechmann

dramaturgie: Felix Ritter

lichtontwerp: Erik Gramberg

geluidsontwerp: Vladimir Rakić

kostuumontwerp: Dejan Došljak

artistiek adviseur: Vladimir Tupanjac

fotografie: Srdjan Veljovic

tekst: Sanja Mitrović, Jochen Stechmann

coproductie: Centar za kulturnu dekontaminaciju Belgrade, Het Veem Amsterdam,

Stand Up Tall Productions

ondersteuning: BITEF festival Belgrade, Pact Zollverein Essen

met dank aan: DAS Arts Amsterdam, Shady Lane Productions Glasgow

 

 

INTERVIEW

CIS BIERINCKX, ARTISTIEK DIRECTEUR BEURSSCHOUWBURG MET SANJA MITROVIC:

 

‘Euro-Scene Leipzig’ quoted Khadija Ben El Kebir in relation to your performance. He wrote: "It's an absolute challenge to use the naivety of childhood for highlighting socio-political questions of universal nature". In how far can you pin this comment to ‘Will You Ever Be Happy Again?’?

One of the biggest challenges in making this performance was to find a form, a proper starting point from which I could talk about things that maybe are still difficult to talk about.

The children games are an epitome of playfulness, they are supposed to be a source of joy. This aspect of “playing” is, for me, appealing in relation to the theatre and inspiring as a field from which to reconsider the topics that interest me. The children games imply the naivety of a world in which everything is black and white. The distinction between the good and the bad is simple, and it’s always clear who are the heroes and who are the villains. But the children games can be very cruel too, and often are the source of traumatic experiences and violence.

 

Therefore, it is a language in which everybody can recognize themselves, a language which we all understand since it is a good metaphor of the relations that exist in the “adult society” as well.

 

How do you relate to topics of nationality, identity and history?

 

The relationship between the individual and the collective is what I am interested in, to which extent are we defined by the surrounding and if and how can we influence it in return. The question of history is a complex one since the narrative of history depends on the person who writes it. Another question is how much we are determined by our personal histories, and how much by our collective or national history and what kind of identities are created with the baggage of national history that all of us have to bear. One of the central points of my performance is the need to understand what defines us as an individual and what is the collective identity that defines us all together, through the events that are part of our collective memory, such as, for example, the Second World War.

 

History as a science has proved that the “little things“ and seemingly insignificant details are actually not only trivialities. The world is often indicated in events that can appear invisible at first. And this invisibility is what we perpetuate if we don’t feel a need to think through and question such details. Or, simply said – if we do not notice them.

 

You premiered ‘Will You Ever Be Happy Again?’ at the BITEF Festival in Belgrade, and after Serbia you toured with it in Germany, Switzerland, France and the Netherlands? Was there a difference in the reactions of the audiences and what were the most asked questions after the performances?

 

It seems that the performance deals with certain universal aspects in which people from different cultural or political backgrounds recognize their own childhood, or at least remember it – a certain nostalgia about times when the world was more simple to understand.  An interesting aspect of the performance for the audiences in The Netherlands was to observe the recent history of Serbia through the perspective of an individual and to try to reconsider  their own prejudices. Since The Netherlands were not so much affected by wars, the most interesting parts of the performance were the ones in which the question of integration is directly exposed. This is obviously for them much more a burning question than the question of guilt.

 

In France, the performance was received emotionally and people were able to identify with our own stories. The final scene in which we use the football supporters’ songs starts with almost poetical examples and ends with extremely nationalistic and racist songs. This was received with great emotion as a picture that is very close to Europe today – Europe that is overwhelmed with nationalism, xenophobia and hate.

 

In Serbia, people had a feeling that the 90-es came back in front of their eyes. Logically, the strongest reactions were in Sarajevo. It was an extraordinary experience to play this performance in the city that was affected to such a devastating degree by the war and where you can still see the signs of destruction wherever you go. For me personally it was very important to show this performance there. For me the measure of success in what I do is the intensity of not closing your eyes for “embarrassing” events or topics, a willingness to cope with questions we would rather not like to think about and an urge to try to outline a common ground from which we can still talk about these things.