The 71st edition of the Festival of Professional Theatres in Vojvodina will take place at the National Theatre ‘Toša Jovanović’ in Zrenjanin between 4th-10th April 2022
As one of the oldest theatre festivals in Serbia, the Festival of Professional Theatres in Vojvodina showcases professional performances made in the province of Vojvodina, in two selections: the drama progamme and the theatre programme for children.
The 71st Festival selection is made of shows from the last two theatre seasons, since last year’s Festival was cancelled due to Covid. The slogan for this year’s festival is All the Theatre Machines – Stories, Pictures, Affects. The selector of the 71st Festival is Vlatko Ilić, a scholar of arts and culture and a professor at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade.
The drama programme consists of six performances, two of them from the multilingual National Theatre in Subotica: Quicksand, a show in Hungarian directed by Kinga Mezei and based on Otto Tolnai’s and Pal Petric’s motives; and Rooster without a Tail, based on a play by Aleksandar Popović and directed by Milan Nešković, a show in Serbian that won several awards at last year’s Sterija pozorje festival, including the award for best directing.
There are two more shows from Subotica, from the theatre Kosztolanyi Sezso: Wanton Lady’s Knights, directed by Andras Urban and another multiple laureate at the 2021 Sterijino pozorje, and Chekhov’s Three Sisters in the direction of Zoltan Puskas. Both shows are in Hungarian. The remaining two performances are Who Killed Janis Joplin, written by Tijana Grumić and directed by Sonja Petrović from the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad, and Tennessee
Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire at the Sombor National Theatre, directed by Jug Djordjevic. The shows are in Serbian.
The selection of shows for children encompasses three works in the Serbian language: Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking, directed by Veselin Bojdev at the Children’s Theatre in Subotica; The Boy and the Moon, Željko Hubač’s dramatization of Branko Ćopić’s story, directed by Vjera Vidov at the National Theatre ‘Toša Jovanović’ in Zrenjanin; and The Little Match Girl, written by Sonja Petrović and Mina Petrić on the basis of Hans Christian Andresen’s
story and directed by Sonja Petrović at Youth Theatre in Novi Sad.
For more information visit TosaJovanovic.org.rs
Borisav Matić is a critic and dramaturg from Serbia. He is the Regional Managing Editor at The Theatre Times. He regularly writes about theatre for a range of publications and media.
He’s a member of the feminist collective Rebel Readers with whom he co-edits Bookvica, their platform for literary criticism, and produces literary shows and podcasts. He occasionally works as a dramaturg or a scriptwriter for theatre, TV, radio and other media. He's the administrator of IDEA - the International Drama/Theatre and Education Association.
