Belgrade



Belgrade International Theatre Festival BITEF 2011, 13-24th of September this year characterize quite sophisticated program with traditional and aesthetical variety when comes to artistic standards of critical point of view on a social ambition in theatre came in a cozy mixture of contemporary theatre productions. This year festival represented relevant and critically acclaimed theatre productions due to reflect political circumstances with new view on international and the region in focus program that had an equal share in the competition. For its continuity and quality, festival represented one “anti-traditional phenomenon” of contemporary theatre and quite alike value of Serbian and European theatrical culture nowadays. The Grand Prix Mira Trailović for the best production and a Special Award this year went to I Went to the House But Did Not Enter; with concept, music and direction by Heiner Goebbels and production of the Theatre Vidy Lausanne from Switzerland, "the work of Heiner Goebbels is always surprising, always searching for new ways and experimenting with the possibilities of theatre. It’s not a specific political meaning he is looking for, but the alchemy of theatre and imagination, which form the very pillars of society. In order to truly appreciate Goebbels’ Gesamtkunstwerk as a spectator one has to indulge in his rich world of music and scenographic ideas, otherwise nothing will happen. A consistent absurdity offers a true and deep vision of life for everyone," said the international jury of the festival: Arthur Sonnen, Anna Lengyel, Alja Predan, Vladica Milosavljević and Nikola Zavišić .


Four singers (and actors in production) of the Hilliard Ensemble incorporated in the play gave the performance a special intonation of middle aged elderly men and their fear of death and question of mortality usual for this age. To face the contemporary director of play Goebbels pulls out Hilliard Ensemble that, according to director, stages concert in 3 parts e.g. stories. Each part is separate from each other presenting different literary text of 20th century even though defining characters in a play clearly in this production, is very hard. Title of play probably refers to Kafka type protagonists: ordinary men with no special or distinguish type: man in a big wide world of mistrust in such a linear narrative form but followed by songs sang in Hilliard style. The lyrics of songs are actual text, paragraphs from the greatest literal works of 20th of centuary.This actual musical play forms around 3 different texts from literature. Goebbels calls it staged concert in three tableaux, with each scene built around a different text in English. The first one takes T.S. Eliot's The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock as a starting point to end with set of Beckett's prose piece, Worstward Ho. The central part (story) brings together most popular paragraph by Maurice Blanchot and ends with Franz Kafka. An excellent stage set gives fantastic view on each paragraph in order to create an intensive picture, with carefully observed details with combination of Hilliard singing; all this gives the play a real contemporary look. The most striking detail for me is Franc Kafka’s façade of urban house so that to create atmospheric desperation depicted in an original literature piece. The impeccable set gives the powerful atmosphere of nostalgia for youth, as for the all protagonists are older men. The Hilliard singing deliver fantastic insights of dark mood of Elliot’s poem for instance and Beckett’s piece that copes well with Hilliard’s metrical psalm of voices in rhythmic unison.


The play in general, is very accurate and precise. The entire project has been written by German composer and director Heiner Goebbels for Theater Vidy, Lausanne and has been already presented in Europe. For those who do not know, Hilliard Ensemble is a chamber-singing group of distinctive style, developed in the medieval time for renaissance singers.
Even if it seems that in the play nothing really happens, there is a simple secret of Goebbels that may be called a Hilliard music-theatre, but with no spectacle, that usually follows the Hillards. No matter, this play makes a great impact and grabs the attention.


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