Festival was opened by the actress Mira Stupica.

Mira Stupica

Participants:

1. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo
   Josip Pejaković: „Man with Four Legs“
2. FR Yugoslavia, Bar
   Barski ljetopis
   Veljko Radović: „Jakov Embraces Thorns“
3. FR Yugoslavia, Belgrade
   Atelje 212
   Samuel Beckett: “Last Tape“
4. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo
   SARTR
   Eugene Ionesko: „Chairs“
5. FR Yugoslavia, Belgrade
   National Theatre
   Ljubomir Simović: „Hasanaginica“
6. Macedonia, Bitola
   National Theatre
   Coume Moile Piaf: „Edith Piaf“
7. FR Yugoslavia, Belgrade
   Atelje 212
   Dragan Uskoković : „Čegović“
8. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Banjaluka
   National Theatre
   Nikolai Kolada: „Hen“
9. FR Yugoslavia, Belgrade
   „Slavija“ Theatre
   Dusan Cvetić: „Queen ’s Gambit“
10. Austria, Vienna
    Zijah Sokolović: „Kabares-Kabarei“

Additional Program:

• Evening with Rade Šerbedžija
• Concert of the „Foltih“ Band – Bitola
• Evening with Petar Kralj
• Cabaret „Travel Europe“, Goran Sultanović

"Hasanaginica"

There was no jury for award giving in the first edition of the Festival.

Festival was opened by the actor Ljuba Tadić.

Ljuba Tadić

Participants:

1. Croatia, Zagreb
   Teatar u gostima
   Ronald Harwood: „Quartett“
2. Slovenia, Ljubljana
   European Culture Month
   A.P. Chekov-Zijah Sokolović: „Bear“
3. Germany, Diesseldorf
   European Roma Theatre „Pralipe“
   Dragica Potočnjak: „Kalea“
4. Slovenia, Ljubljana
   Slovenian National Theatre
   Caryl Churchill: „Far Away“
5. FR Yugoslavia, Novi Sad
   Serbian National Theatre
   Bogdan Španjević: „Freaks“
6. FR Yugoslavia, Nikšić
   Niksic Theatre
   Goran Bulajić: „Verdict“
7. FR Yugoslavia, Cetinje
   Royal Theatre Zetski Dom
   Alfred Garrie: „King Ibi“*
8. Hungary, Budapest
   Serbian Theatre in Hungary
   G. Anđel-M.Rus: „Sombor Rose“*
9. Macedonia, Bitola
   National Theatre
   Risto Krle: «Money is Lethal»

Additional Program:

• Exhibition of the sketches and drawings by Mira Čohadžić
• Roma evening: Pralipe and Pearls of Srem
• Evening with Radko Polič
• Evening with Svetlana Bojković*
• Evening with Mira Banjac*
• Evening with Meto Jovanovski*

Festival Jury:
Mira Banjac, actress
Želimir Orešković, director
Milica Novković, playwright

AWARD «DON QUIXOTE» FOR THE BEST PRODUCTION:
National Theatre Bitola, Macedonia
R. Krle: „Money is Lethal»

* The performances were not presented because of the Day of Mourning in commemoration of the assassinated Serbian Prime Minister, dr Zoran Djindjic.

Festival was opened by the actor Radko Polič.

Radko Polič

Participants:

1. Macedonia, Skopje
   Drama Theatre
   Jose Rivera: „Marisol“
2. Bulgaria, Sofia
   Credo Theatre
   Nikolai Gogol: „Overcoat“
3. Albania, Tirana
   National Theatre
   K. Varnalis: „Socrates Apology»
4. Bosnia i Herzegovina, Sarajevo
   SARTR
   Darko Lukić: „Queens“
5. Serbia and Montenegro, Belgrade
   Theatre on Terazije
   M. Zablaćanski: „Immagine the World“
6. Bosnia i Herzegovina, Sarajevo
   SARTR
   Safet Plakalo: „Phoeniks Burned in Vain“
7. Serbia and Montenegro, Cetinje
   Royal Theatre Zetski dom
   Alfred Garrie: „King Ibi“*
8. Slovenia, Gorica
   International coproduction
   (Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Hungary)
   Marian Bevk: „Letters from the Frontline“
9. England, London
   ACT TC
   Andrew Rissic- „Men Do Not Go to War over Women“
10. Croatia, Zagreb
    Kerempuh
    Dušan Kovačević: „The Balkan Spy“

Additional Program:

• Evening with Meto Jovanovski*
• Evening with Svetlana Bojković*
• Evening with Mira Banjac*

Festival Jury:
Želimir Orešković, director
Veljko Radović, playwright
Filip David, writer

AWARD «DON QUIXOTE» FOR THE BEST PRODUCTION:
Credo Theatre, Sofia, Bulgaria
Nikolai Gogol: „Overcoat“

* The performances were presented in the third, instead of the second, edition of the Festival, because of the Day of Mourning in commemoration of the assassinated Serbian Prime Minister, dr Zoran Djindjic.

Festival was opened by the actress Olivera Marković.

Olivera Marković

Participants:

1. Bulgaria, Sofia
   Theatre „Ela“
   By Hašek, Alen, Jerfejev
   „For Striking Idiots“
2. Serbia and Montenegro, Podgorica
   Montenegrin National Theatre
   Martin McDonagh: „The Beauty Queen“
3. Israel, Giwataim
   Theatre „Giwataim“
   Roni Feldman: „Silent People“
4. Hungary, Budapest
   Serbian Theatre
   Lenđel, K. Kovač, M. Rus: „Wolf Shepherd“*
5. Croatia, Zagreb
   Theatre Exit
   S. Berkoff: „Decadence“
6. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo
   SARTR
   Ibrahim Kajan: „Katarina Kosača“
7. Ukraine, Kiev
   „Suzyria“ Theatre
   Bulat Okudzhava: „In a Drum Lane“
8. Macedonia, Skopje
   Drama Theatre
   Goran Stefanovski: „Everyman“

Additional Program:

• Evening with Mihailo Janketić
• Evening with Dragica Tomas
• Evening with Petar Banićević
• Evening with Ivan Bekjarev

Festival Jury:
Veljko Radović, playwright
Tanja Mandić-Rigonat, director
Marian Bevk, director

AWARD «DON QUIXOTE» FOR THE BEST PRODUCTION:
Montenegrin National Theatre, Podgorica
Martin McDonagh: „The Beauty Queen“

* The performance was scheduled for 12 March 2003, but because of the tragic assassination of the Serbian Prime Minister, dr Zoran Djindjic, it was presented two years later on the same day.

Festival was opened by the actor Petar Banićević.

Petar Banićević

Participants:

1. Serbia and Montenegro, Belgrade
   „Slavija“ Theatre
   Miodrag Ilić. „Žanka“
2. Ukraine, Kiev
   „Suzyria“
   Eric Emanuel Schmitt: „Secret Love“
3. Lithuania, Kaunas
   Chamber Theatre
   Alexander Pushkin: „The Queen of Spades“
4. Bulgaria, Plovdiv
   Drama Theatre
   Ljubiša Georgijevski: „Filoctetes“
5. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo
   Theatre of the Young
   Nick Wood: „Warrior's Square“
6. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo
   Dušan Kovačević: „Doctor Šuster“
   Macedonia, Skopje
7. Macedonian National Theatre
   Based on Sophocle's „Electra“- „Nameless“
8. Serbia and Montenegro, Sremska Mitrovica
   Theatre „Dobrica Milutinović“, Šabac Theatre
   Jovan Sterija Popović: „Getting Married“
9. Serbia and Montenegro, Cetinje
   Royal Theatre Zetski dom
   Danilo Kiš: „Wooden Chest of Thomas Wolf“
10. Italy, Udine
    Theatre Incerto/CSS Permanent Innovations Theatre FVG
    Eduardo Erba: „New York Marathon“

Additional Program:

• Exhibition of photos from the performances od the actor Ljuba Tadic played in the SLAVIJA Theatre.

Festival Jury:
Radomir Putnik, dramaturge
Marian Bevk, director
Petar Zec, director

AWARD «DON QUIXOTE» FOR THE BEST PRODUCTION:
Chamber Theatre Kaunas
Alexander Pushkin: „The Queen of Spades“

Festival opened by the actor Pero Kvrgić.

BELGRADE, 9-16 MARCH 2007

The Festival Jury:
Gradimir Gojer
Radomir Putnik
Andrei Moskwin

Award for the best production Statuette of Don Quixote work of the sculptor Nikola-Kolja Milunovic

CROATIA
PLANET ART – D.K. GAVELLA, Zagreb

Jeff Baron
VISITING MR. GREEN

Director: Aida Bukvic

“How to meet each other in the present-day world when the “I” is put in first place? It may seem good that the “I” is the measure of the world, that the “I” determines the boundaries of the world, but there is a problem. Fulfillment of the wishes and needs of the “I” creates a wall around the “I”, which remains alone and lonely. Surrounded by the wall of own wishes and needs, the “I” cannot communicate with anyone beyond the fence, not even with the closest persons, which happens in this drama. One character (old Jew) disowned his own daughter because she married against his will (for a non-Jew), and the other (successful young businessman) is ashamed of himself and of his parents because they do not accept his sexuality. Thus the “I” becomes alone, lonely, unhappy and somehow bent. Instead of enjoying the freedom of individuality, the “I” ends up confined in the prison of loneliness.

…It is only when the confined “I” shows sincere interest in someone else that the wall can be pulled down and the solitude conquered. Because, if you want to grow fond of someone, you must get familiar with him, get closer to him. To manage that, you must become open. At the end of the drama, both characters are awarded for their courage, and so are we, the spectators, watching so skillful leading of the characters from laughter to warm emotions, leaving the space for artistic bravura.”

Sanja Nikcevic

10 MARCH 20:00

SERBIA
Theatre “Bora Stanković”, Vranje

Borisav Stanković
KOŠTANA

Director: Radoslav Radivojević

“This old, but always delightful play of ours will never be removed from the repertories, particularly in Vranje, whose citizens are passionate theatregoers and who watch their “Kostana” with due respect. This summer, the theatre from Niš gave this performance twice and it was sold out both times. Young people came to see their ancestors at least on the stage. The old came to refresh their memories. And many of those old ones, who remember the old Kostana’s time, and who enjoyed in her singing and spent many nights with her, are still alive. Therefore, whenever ”Kostana” is on stage, all of them, and the whole Vranje, think that it is their duty to come to the performance, to feel special pleasure and delight. In the characters on the stage, they recognize their “old pals” and even themselves.

Bora Stankovic bestowed unending fame upon Vranje through his works, particularly “Kostana”, and gave it a cult, making it well known in the whole country. The charms of life of that time, which Bora so beautifully presented, attract everybody who learns about them from his works, and those who come to Vranje look for the remnants of the past and refresh themselves upon the memories from that delightful past.“

Vranje Journal
Issue No. 22, page 2
15 October 1924

And since then, almost a century has elapsed and “always delightful play will never be removed from the repertories, particularly in Vranje …”

BULGARIA
The National Bulgarian Theatre “Ivan Vazov”

Patrick Suskind
THE DOUBLE BASS

Director: Plamen Markov

Actor – Valentin Ganev

“Brilliant!…Unbelievable one-man-show!”

“Suskind-Ganev-Markov’s virtuoso “Double Bass”…The one man show in the National Theatre is a performance giving us hope…The show is great not only because of the text and the directing. With his wonderful performance, Valentin Ganev makes us forget the time… There are only a few actors that can create a character so varied emotionally, so controversial and ironic. Ganev is obviously one of them. At first sight it looks like he is not using a special acting technique…His most complicated tricks look easy and doable…Altogether the performance’s intelligent humor, mastered wonderfully by Plamen Markov and Valentin Ganev, makes an hour and a half feel like a flash.”

“Masterly made combination of complexity and simplicity!…The actor achieves a very complicated balance on the edge between simplicity—a catching informality, and a raise up—simultaneously sensual and intellectual….Shockingly good!”

“Using the tension between a man and a musical instrument, an actor and a subject, a live body and a polished corpus, the director Plamen Markov plays with the modern man’s isolation, with his complexes and manias, with his disappointments and desires…Valentin Ganev is a virtuoso…”

From critics’ reviews

RUSSIAN FEDERATION
Nebolshoy Drama Theatre , St. Petersburg

Maxim Gorky
THE LOWER DEPTHS

Director: Lev Erenburg

In this Gorky’s play, most of us are used to see revolutionary characters and social aggravation, thick darkness and hopelessness, but in this performance, this story turns out to be common and recognizable to all mankind.

It is a philosophical story, full of passionate appeal to freedom and light. The darkness of the bottom here is necessary only for the sun to shine more brightly. Famous Gorky’s doss-house is loosing it’s usual meaning, turns to an abstract raft, wonderful Noah’s Ark, on which “men and persons” philosophize by their way. Barefooted cranks, strange characters of this parable are looking for light, love, escape… Their way is difficult, and sometimes-seeming happiness turns out to be just an illusion – fantasy. Illusions and mirages surround them, sometimes confusing and threatening, but sometimes giving hope and bringing unsteady happiness.

“Erenburg's emotionally explosive rendition of this tale about life's sinners, losers, thugs and victims is a classic ensemble piece in which a large number of exceptional small contributions add up to a whole that is greater than its individual parts.”

“The Lower Depths” is about love, unachievable and painful, salutary and beautiful, “The Lower Depths” is about life, in which reality is often hard to believe in. “The Lower Depths” is about death, which opens the way to a new being. “

“The director Lev Erenburg, who is actually also a practicing doctor, rigidly presents the characters with a diagnosis. These are not Gorky’s tramps, but rather today’s outcasts: the homeless, vagabonds, alcoholics and drug-addicts. The action occurs not in an asylum, but in a derelict basement. The protagonists are young, as are the actors so that the performance is full of energy and even anguish. Having lost everything, at the bottom of life, the characters have managed not to lose their humanity and their ability to love. The strongest moments in “The Lower Depths” are connected with departures into another reality, when the hope for the soul’s resurrection dawns in the most tragic and desperate moments.”

From critics’ reviews

ROMAINA
„Valah Theatre“, Giurgiu

Dumitru Solomon
MIRIAM

Director: Mircea Cretu

“The play presents the tragedy of a young Jewish girl. The horrors of the war and the bearings of death turn an innocent girl into a prostitute who must sell herself to earn her living. Her change is not complete, because she did not forget. And that hurts. This is a show which deserves deafening applause.”

“The director Mircea Cretudescribes with affection and sensibility all the Miriam’s experiences. He realizes the play using modern technologies – it is a mixture of a movie, theatre and music and achieves full success.

All these things give us the right to declare that it is a show with a great density and a powerful resonance for the audience.”

„ The performers of leading roles add to each other and communicate very well. They are very attentive with the nuances, creating the image of very sensitive characters, with all their weaknesses and ideals.”

From the critics’ reviews

ADDITIONAL PROGRAM

Goran Sultanovic's Cabaret "I Sing The Blues"

Participants:
Goran Sultanovic, Dusan Bezuha i Aleksandar Grujic

MONTENEGRO
National Theatre of Montenegro, Podgorica

Valentin Krasnogorov
LET’S HAVE SEX

Director: Lidija Dedović

“Each character in this strange, absurd play talks and thinks only about sex. This is an open dramatic structure. There is no plot in the traditional sense. Action of the characters is motivated by loneliness and sexual desire. They search for love and warmth, longing to run away from all of their problems. It can be classified in any genre.”

(Valentin Krasnogorov)

“This is a cabaret. About sexuality as a salvation and necessity.
Cabaret. Imaginary world of libido, suppressed desires.
Cabaret. Contact with the audience. And communication. Self recognition,
insane escape from loneliness.
Cabaret. Intimacy. Erotica. Fun.
Provocation. Music. Perversion.
Music. Dance. Affection.
Cabaret. Socially engaged. Implicitly satirical.
Cabaret. Elevates sexuality to the level of indispensable, eruptive,
verbal, bodily, provocative, dancing, singing…
Let’s Have Sex is an invitation to sex, to liberation, to a cup of coffee, a drink,
to understanding.”

(Lidija Dedović)

MACEDONIA
National Theatre of Macedonia, Skopje

Eugene Ionesko
DELIRIUM FOR TWO

Director: Dejan Projkovski

“Gorgi Yolevski and Iskra Veterova die on the stage. Not physically but mentally, artistically powerful and charged with imagination, with the action that shifts from the actors to the audience.

There is a war outside, and the two of them are waging their own battle, lulled in the illusion that they are protected from the outside evil. Their battle is unscrupulous, for a moment they transform to bloodthirsty animals, to realize immediately that they are the humans who love each other.

With his direction and through his minimalist approach, Dejan Projkovski creates a theatrically pure performance in which Yonesko is no longer the author of absurd theatre but the author of real life …”

From critics' reviews

RUSSIAN FEDERATION
Omsk State Drama Theatre

August Strindberg
MISS JULIE

Director: Evgeny Marcelli

The Omsk State Drama Theater is considered one of the leading theatres in Russia founded in 1874. The very building was constructed in 1905 and nowadays is considered as an architecture work of art protected by the federal laws. The Theater has been going through its 133 season. Now it is led by its Managing Director, Victor Lapoukhin and Artistic Director, Evgeny Marchelli. The Theatre’s repertory includes about 20 performances, and one of the hits of the current season is “Miss Julie”.

The Omsk State Drama Theatre was twice awarded with the Russian Socialist Republic’s greatest State Award named after K. S. Stanislavsky. In 2006, Omsk State Drama Theatre and the main director Evgeny Marchelli won the central Russian theatrical prize "Golden Mask" for the performances "Cherry Orchard" and "Miss July".

"Miss July" is my play. It has been living inside me for a long time and I like it very much, because there is a main theme in it. The theme in whose investigation I was always interested: man and woman. It is my theme. And it is clear here, it is really about it. The play is not so simple and of course, I understand that Strindberg took an interest in quite different issues when he was writing it. He was filled with indignation about female emancipation and he had suffered from it. I believe these were his main ideas. However, the most important thing for me is the hot passion, which has no logical explanation. All culture of the main heroine protests against the passion, but the passion gets its way. The nature prevails over the culture.”

Evgeny Marcell