The 63rd International Theater Festival MESS in Sarajevo will be held this year from 30th September to 8th October.
This year’s edition of the MESS festival will feature twelve theatre performances from all around the world selected by Dino Mustafić and Nihad Kreševljaković.
The festival will open on 30th September play Caligula, based on Albert Camus’ text and directed by Ivan Uryvskyi, in production by the National Academic Drama Theater Ivan Franko from Kyiv, will open the festival. This drama explores the absolute power of a dictator portrayed as absolute Evil that inevitably leads to madness, chaos, and death.
Then, on 1st October, the festival will play host to the premiere Alice in Bed based on the text by Susan Sontag and directed by Zoltán Balázs, in a co-production between Scena MESS, SARTR, and Maladype Theatre. This performance marks the 90th anniversary of Susan Sontag’s birth and the 30th anniversary of the premiere of the play Waiting for Godot that she directed in besieged Sarajevo.
The festival audience will also have the opportunity to watch the performance Chotto Desh by choreographer Akram Khan, directed and adapted by Sue Buckmaster, as well as the performance Wakatt produced by Faso Danse Theatre from Burkina Faso, with the concept and choreography by the renowned choreographer Serge Aimé Coulibaly. Wakatt will also play the BITEF festival in Belgrade. There will also be a performance of Othello directed by Lithuanian director Oskaras Koršunovas and produced by OKT/Vilnius City Theatre and the German production T4: Ofelia’s Garden directed by David Stöhr.
Deca, Narodno Pozoriste, Beograd
From the region, this year MESS will feature the performances of Children from the National Theater in Belgrade, composed and directed by Irena Popović, the play Under Both Suns from the Royal Theater Zetski Dom in Cetinje, directed by Boris Liješević and The Handke Project by Jeton Neziraj, produced by Qendra Multimedia Kosovo.
This year, 13 shows were submitted for the Bosnian selection of MESS, and the selector, Janko Ljumović, a professor at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts at the University of Montenegro, chose three. The audience will have the opportunity to watch a play based on Chekhov’s work Ivanov, directed by Paolo Magelli, produced by the National Theatre Sarajevo and the performance Totovi based on the text by István Ékes about the Second World War, directed by Andraš Urban and produced by the Sarajevo War Theatre SARTR. The Croatian National Theatre from Mostar will present the play A Night with Aleksa about poet Aleksa Šantić, directed by Ivica Buljan.
Main image: Wakatt
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.
