The 64th edition of MESS festival took place in Sarajevo between 4th and 13th October. Lamija Milišić reports on this year’s programme, which included work from Palestine and a stage adaptation of Lana Bastašić’s hit novel Catch the Rabbit.
The International Theatre Festival MESS was founded in 1960 under the name of the Festival of Small and Experimental Stages of Yugoslavia, which gave it the widely recognized acronym MES (bos. Mala eksperimentalna scena). The Festival was established upon the initiative of Jurislav Korenić, and it belongs into the category of the oldest festivals in East and Southeast Europe. Throughout decades, MESS brought to Sarajevo world famous experimental theatre performers and art projects that have been proven to address current issues as well as eternal hardships of human kind.
In 2024, the programme was created under the theme of “Unstoppable life” and featured productions from Switzerland, France, Italy, Germany, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Albania, Slovenia, Serbia, North Macedonia, Lebanon and Palestine. As stated by the festival director Nihad Kreševljaković: “The idea is simple but powerful: neither evil nor destruction can stop life. At the centre of this message is the role of art as a symbol of hope, its continuous voice in times of global catastrophes. As we witness violence and destruction, we believe that human nature, at its core, transcends the destructive policies that push the world in the wrong direction.”
This said – MESS once again shaped its program with an outline that treats theatre art and art in general not as a form of refuge or oasis that might release one of a sense of responsibility for the deeds of human kind in the world, but as a form of resistance of the ever so easy path of hopelessness and passivity, which again might lead to harmlessness of art − one of the most dangerous of its states of being.
Theatre Amidst Political Turmoil
The 64th MESS was consistent of several programs: the main program (the competition program (11 plays) and the “All Inclusive” program (4 plays)), the program for children and young audiences “Mini MESS” (Mali MESS) (4 plays), as well as panel discussions and conversations with workers in theatre and culture “MESSspresso” and “Dramadžiluk”. The festival “team of critics” this year was unfortunately consistent of only my colleague and an esteemed, long time journalist Mirza Skenderagić and myself. As Mirza pointed out a few days prior to the festival, “MESS remains the only festival in Bosnia and Herzegovina that gives importance to professional criticism, that has a team for writing professional criticism, and it is really a crucial moment for other theatre festivals to engage in this way.” In an attempt to broaden Mirza’s thought, I would say that free criticism adheres to what Hegel called “immanent criticism”, one that analyses a theatre play by the means of its own fictional world and by the means of the historical and political context it is brought to life in front of an audience.
Wary of this societal context, the 64th MESS was officially opened on 9 October 2024 with a video message from children from the refugee camp in Jenin, that was recorded by Eyad Hourani, a prominent Palestinian film and theatre actor. The program then continued with the awarding ceremony of “Zlatni lovorov vijenac” award for Hervé Loichamol and Lee Delong, for their contribution to the art of theatre. The award was given by the festival directorate.
Metro Gaza. Photo: Gilles Vuissoz
The festival opened with Metro Gaza, a play by Compagnie FOR, Ferney-Voltaire, L’ Askéné and The Freedom Theatre, directed by Hervé Loichamol and inspired by an installation by Mohamed Abusal. Being a play based on a work of a Palestinian artist and also directed by a French artist − it brings out before its audience questions like who has the right and who has the responsibility to speak about the historical injustice and pain of a nation.
As it was shown in this performance, it is possible to build a theatrical language with aesthetic ideas inspired by the harsh reality of war, but only to the point when that reality becomes so close to them that it begins knocking on the doors of the theatre. From that moment on, the fourth wall breaks down and the theatrical illusion becomes a servant of facts. Metro Gaza realizes this vision of theatre using the motif of a dream, exploring several of its meanings. When the other characters discover that the “Gaza” metro is just Abusal’s dream, the play takes a turn. Until that moment, Abusal’s arrangement seems like an urge to romanticize reality. The dream serves as a shelter, but that concept breaks down under Abusal’s line, “This is a metro made out of nothing, that leads nowhere.” The metro driver speaks this central idea of the play explicitly, thereby somewhat damaging the intensity of the “dreamed” space on stage. This explicitness brings Metro Gaza to a challenge in the last stage of the play, which decides to “rebuild” the fourth wall. It is decided to prove that the dreamed search for humanity is convincing, justified, real. Metro Gaza succeeds in this; a certain cynicism fundamentally implied by the breaking down of the fourth wall is overcome by Abusal’s concluding monologue / testimony of a ruined life that made him an illusion of a man, but also by his idealism found in the “dream of a soldier who refused to shoot”. Among the ruins of his house in Gaza, among the ruins of the fourth wall, he finds the freedom to dream.
The second day of the festival continued its competition program with the play Drama o Mirjani i ovima oko nje (A Play about Mirjana and Those Around Her) by the Bosnian National Theatre Zenica, directed by Nermin Hamzagić. Portraying the life of the titled protagonist, this play tried to find the process of montage in theatre, in the concept of a mosaic structure in which the light is switched from image to image as a cut, while keeping theatre life in the same state of unchanging routine that is transferred over time from the characters to the audience.
On 6 October, the play Edward II by NUCK Theatre Jordan H. K. Džinot – Veles (North Macedonia) and N.O. Drama Theatre Masalitinov – Plovdiv (Bulgaria) was held. This play by director Andriy Zholdak was proven to be a perfect example of a dysfunctional theatre that, despite consistency and commitment in performance, only occasionally manages to show its true meaning, and even more rarely to awaken any rational or emotional reaction. The second play on the third day of the festival was the solo performance Dance Is Not for Us, by Cie Omar Rajeh and Maqamat (France / Lebanon). With this author’s project, Omar Rajeh presented the audience with the landscape of his city Beirut, a city in great pain, whose grip forces Rajeh to dance.
On 7 October, a play titled Kroćenje goropadnice (The Taming of the Shrew) by Satirical Theatre Kerempuh (Croatia) was performed. Shakespeare wrote The Taming of the Shrew because he recognized its stage and comedic potential, with the belief that the audience would laugh at the metaphorical whipping of a woman, which is exactly what director Selma Spahić and playwright Emina Omerović problematize in the play, keeping the theme wisely in the zeitgeist and subtly dissecting its loose social roots, perhaps ignoring that such flogging in the year 2024 is nothing special, if the physical beating of a woman has become an everyday thing that the whole world laughs at.
On 8 October, the play Budućnost (The Future) by the Belgrade Drama Theatre and the Ljubljana Municipal Theatre, directed by Žiga Divjak was held. It is an almost mute play addressing climate change and man kind’s responsibility amidst it. Uniquely used sound contributed to the idea of “slow violence” with which we as a human race harm nature.
On the sixth day of the festival, there was a performance of Vizita (The Visit) from Albania / Italy (Theatre Migjeni Skadar, Sardegna Theatre). Directed by Italian director Davide Iodice, it already attracted attention with its core idea: an angel falling from heaven due to a priest’s stray bullet. Motif of a miracle that sets foot in the land of men evoked associations for the audience that range from The Grand Inquisitor to Wings of Desire, and all in all the associations of the canonical narrative about, as we learn towards the end of the play, “the poison of our struggle for survival”. The second performance on 9 October was Malograđanska svadba (A Respectable Wedding) directed by Paolo Magelli and in the production of the Chamber Theatre 55 and Scene MESS. Magelli brought us a Brecht play in a chamber version, accompanied by a ringing laughter of the audience that proved with this spontaneous reaction that laughter is truly and inevitably an act of aggression.
10 October brought us the play Stepski vuk (Steppenwolf) by the Croatian National Theater (HNK) Mostar, based on the novel by Hermann Hesse and directed by Tamara Kučinović. The play was proven to belong to the consciously torture type of theatre performances, i.e., the one that will remain consistent with its idea regardless of everything, and regardless of individual original ideas and creative solutions, which in this case are lost in the concept of bipolarity, sudden and incompatible changes of state.
The Future – Belgrade Drama Theatre. Photo: Dragana Udovicic
A play from Italy (Sardegna Theatre, Theatre Bellini Napoli, ERT Emilia Romagna Theatre Foundation, Foundation Theatre Due Parma) titled Tragùdia: Il canto di Edipo (Tragùdia: The Song of Oedipus) was performed on 11 October. The director and absolute author Alessandro Serra, who already won an award at the MESS Festival for the play Macbeth, returned to the archaic language from ancient Greece (“Grekaniko”) and Sophocles’ myth of Oedipus, to bring in a highly stylized search for light a journey from one’s inner darkness, while the shadows lurk to take over everything.
On 13 October, the play Full Moon by Atelier 3+1 (France) was performed. In this play by the acclaimed choreographer Josef Nadj − which in the form of a diptych continued the previous piece Omma, dancing even further and searching even deeper in the darkness of the history of civilization, and artistically exploring the African continent − naturalness comes from movement and rhythm, and continues its development by clashing with the aesthetics of American jazz culture.
On the last day of the festival, a long-awaited adaptation of the acclaimed novel Catch the Rabbit (Uhvati zeca) by Lana Bastašić premiered outside the competition program. The play was directed by Lajla Kaikčija and produced by the National Theatre Sarajevo and Scene MESS. The playwright Nedžma Čizmo recognized one key aspect as a guide in the adaptation: Catch the Rabbit is based on a vicious circle of memories, on an eternal narrative about the friendship of two women, and on the rabbit hole into which we fall and from which we emerge only to enter our Wonderland once again.
Apart from the competition program, the main program of the festival also consisted of the special program titled “All Inclusive”. Through four plays from Germany (Invisible Game), France (Petite Fille), Romania (The Best Child in the World) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (UP and DOWN), “All Inclusive” told the story of the everyday and life stories of Roma, immigrants and people with disabilities.
“Embracing Humour and Facing Tragedy”
The jury consisting of the actor Izudin Bajrović, director Gorčin Stojanović and director Ana Vukotić announced the winners of the 64th MESS. Three awards were given to the team of Tragùdia: The Song of Oedipus: the Grand Prix for the overall best play, “Zlatni lovorov vijenac” for the best director Alessandro Serra and “Zlatni lovorov vijenac” for the the best actor Chiara Michelini. The jury stated Serra’s style as one that simultaneously “embraces humour and faces tragedy”.
The “Rejhan Demirdžić” award for best young actor / actress was given to Jovana Miladinov, who performed in Edward II, and Žiga Divjak (The Future) was awarded the “Jurislav Korenić” award for best young director.
Jury’s special mention was dedicated to Metro Gaza, describing it as “a painfully told story, with no intention of being painful”. Two awards were presented by MESS Festival’s official media sponsors, Tragùdia was awarded the Radio Sarajevo’s “Sound of MESS” award and The Visit was awarded the Oslobođenje’s “Zlatna maska Oslobođenja” award.
The theme of this year’s festival “Unstoppable life” proved to be a driving force. The programme featured various outlooks not just on human kind and its everlasting struggles, but also on theatre as a force that needs to constantly question itself in terms of its responsibility in the evolution of our self-awareness.
If we look back at the performances that were presented in the festival program this year, we can find aesthetic concepts which succeed in embracing the audacity of a lonely individual, caught inexplicably in a vortex of violence (Dance is Not for Us), and the barely possible strength of a man who dreams of freedom while reality does not offer him any hope for it (Metro Gaza). The 64th edition welcomed theatre groups that once again confronted Sarajevo with the vicious circle of human nature that is forever stumbling over itself (Tragùdia), simultaneously fearing and admiring the miracle of life it finds amidst its daily, trivial despair (The Visit). In this way, once again, MESS proved itself unstoppable.
Main image: Catch the Rabbit
For more information, visit: MESS.ba
Further reading: Interview with MESS festival director Nihad Kreševljaković
