The 65th International Theatre Festival MESS is set to take place in Sarajevo from October 4 to 11.
This year’s edition of the MESS festival will feature nine theatre performances from Europe selected by Nihad Kreševljaković. The festival opens with the Spanish production Thauma, directed by Magda Puig Torres and Andreu Martinez Costa, and produced by Teatre Lliure, Nilak, and La Mula. This performance explores wonder and invites the audience into a poetic world that remains open-ended.
The following day, the audience will have the opportunity to see the performance Saint by the renowned director Oskaras Koršunovas and his production from Lithuania. On October 6th, the festival will host Football Boot Tongue by Borut Šeparović, in collaboration with Zagreb Youth Theatre and Montažstroj, as well as Back, directed by Boris Liješević and performed by the Montenegrin National Theatre.
The World and All That It Holds
From Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the main program, there will be two performances: first by director Selma Spahić and Sarajevo War Theatre SARTR, Realstage The World and All That It Holds, multilingual, polyphonic and thrilling epic about love and exile, and later Blank¸ play based on the eponymous novel by Feđa Štukan, directed by Kokan Mladenović and produced by Chamber Theatre 55 and Moje pozorište. As part of the All-Inclusive program, this year’s festival will feature the performance Pulse by Ermin Bravo and Sarajevo War Theatre SARTR.
On the 10th of October, there will be performances of Mirror. Based on a play by Andrei Tarkovsky, directed by Bulent Özdil (Bulent Özdil PFA, Romania) and The Book of My Lives, journey of American-Bosnian writer Aleksandar Hemon, by director Ivana Đilas (Anton Podbevšek Theatre, Dance Theatre Ljubljana, Slovenia). The festival will conclude with Void, performed by the acclaimed Belgian dance company Ultima Vez and directed by Wim Vandekeybus.
The program Mini MESS includes three productions for teenage audiences: Frankenstein, directed by Kokan Mladenović in The Theater for Children and Youth Skopje; Scars, performed by the Youth Theatre of Bileća and directed by Bojan Milidragović; and The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, based on the text by Sue Townsend, produced by the Youth Theatre Sarajevo and directed by Petar Pejaković. “The program aims to serve as the voice of teenagers, giving them a space to share their concerns and to find understanding for the issues they face.”, explained Ira Isović, the selector of Mini MESS.
This will be the last festival in its current form, as a new concept will be introduced soon.
For more information, visit: mess.ba
Further reading: interview with Nihad Kreševljaković: “Artists have to respond to the world they see.”
Divna Stojanov is a dramaturg and playwright. She writes mainly for children and young people.
