Zagreb Youth Theatre, premiere 22 March 2025
The title of the new performance at ZKM sparked interest with me. Directed by Miloš Lolić and based on a graphic novel Capital and Ideology by Claire Alet and Benjamin Adam, itself an adaptation of Thomas Piketty’s book of the same title, the use of the adjective ‘little’ has a note of irony in it because the story it is telling isn’t that little at all. Actually, it covers the last three hundred years of history of a French-based high class ex-noble family. In translation, during the two-and-a-half-hour long performance, we learn that this family has never experienced financial struggle. They serve as an example of how the ‘old-money’ rich stayed rich and kept their generational wealth despite struggles they faced during history. Of course, their struggles show just how privileged they are; they complain about taxes or having to sell their ancestral holiday home villas because they can’t afford to renovate them. ‘The rich also cry’, as they say in the Balkans, a saying that parodies the struggles of the rich, rather than humanising their supposed suffering.
However, this play isn’t a periodic family drama. The emphasis is on the didactic note; it’s meant to educate the audience on how throughout history the rich stayed in power, in spite of historical events such as the French Revolution, First and Second World war, abolition of slavery, 1929 Wall Street crash, workers’ strikes, student protests of ’68, 2001 terrorist attack in New York, 2008 recession, Brexit and many others in between and after.
What helps the audience keep track of these historical events are the long cloths which drop down from the ceiling with the years written on them. The scenography by Lolić and assistant Matej Kniewald matches the dynamic pace of the show – the empty bigger ZKM stage Istra hall is over the course of the performance filled with scenography canvases and props, so at the end there’s a monumental pile that alludes to ballast of historical inheritance that could be titled – ‘A Little History of Inequality’.
Alongside the picturesque canvases, the actors use small white magnetic boards for the didactic parts when they are explaining different economic and political concepts. As much as these bits are educational and necessary for everyone in the audience to understand, it becomes pretty tiresome to simultaneously follow through the crash course of history alongside the very convoluted family relationships. Also, these boards don’t really stand out next to the very elaborate scenography because of their size and their distance from us.
The ensemble consists of sixteen actors who mostly deliver great performances. They are very energetic which helps the audience follow the plot. The majority of the cast each play a single member of the ‘family’ along with additional smaller parts, out of which some are character-less for didactic scenes in which they provide the historical context of the plot. However, because of the episodic nature of their roles and the fact that the entire cast is present on the stage constantly, it’s impossible for me to highlight individual performances. The characters they play are mostly pompous caricatures of rich people who are so detached from the reality they live in, completely oblivious of their privileged position. Even with the newer ‘family’ generations that show affinity towards liberal and socialist ideas, they still act privileged.
Likewise, the ‘family’ relations are very unhealthy and toxic since most of them are financially motivated, marrying for wealth and position or managing the inheritance and estates. Soon, we find out that they were slave owners on the former colony of Saint-Dominique, today known as Republic of Haiti. Feeling shame for coming from generational wealth that has been accumulated over the years from being an oppressor, taking responsibility for inhumane behaviour and fighting against it with family members is the central conflict between the characters. The conflict really gets heated between a conservative father Gilles (Dado Ćosić) and his socialist son Antoine (Mateo Videk) when the son fights with his father over the borderline criminal and unjustly way the wealth was accumulated during the history. The father loses his temper and points out to his estranged son that precisely because of his wealth he could’ve afforded him everything he owns, calling out his hypocritical salon-leftist disposition. Sadly, the discussion doesn’t go further, just like it happens with other hinted conflicts in the play.
A Little History of Inequality, Zagreb Youth Theatre
Where the performance lacks in dialogue, it supplies with symbolism from the scenography and props. There were two images that stuck with me by the end of the show. The first one is an image of the Second World War: a live white rabbit is put on the table where the family just had the before-mentioned fight. A white rabbit can signify innocence, happiness, self-sacrifice but more specifically in the current moment in time and context – a reference to song Neki novi klinci by Đorđe Balašević and the rabbit becoming one of the symbols of the Serbian student protests. The rabbit is on the table when the silence is interrupted by drops of black paint that fall on the table, with the huge black curtain falling from behind, revealing the pile of scenography.
The second image and the most potent symbol in the play for me was Pandora’s box. Pandora is introduced to the stage when the aftermath of French Revolution is discussed where it turns out the event wasn’t so revolutionary, not every commoner benefited from it and the rich weren’t overly affected by it. Pandora’s box is covered in purple velvet and is often carried throughout the stage as a family archive box. Towards the end, in the year 2025, one of the descenders Lea (Tina Orlandini) finds the archive in their old family villa which is now used for private parties. Lea’s sister Elise (Mia Melcher), who breaks the fourth wall from time to time to deliver ironic one-liners, tells Lea not to open the box while she’s preparing the villa for her partner’s birthday party who’s called Gilles, like her great-grandfather. This Gilles break the wall too, listing the current horrors rapid climate changes, ongoing war in Ukraine and genocide of Palestinians and finishes with repeating three times that the richest one percent of the populations owns half of the global wealth, emphasising the absurdity of disproportionation. Despite her sister’s advice, Lea opens the box and finds an itinerary list from her ancestor from the former colony of Saint-Dominique with detailed descriptions of how many slaves they owned each year. Having read the paper, she looks uncomfortable, she puts it back in the box and joins the party group.
The ending of the play gives off a rather pessimistic tone, unlike the version of Pandora’s myth where, after all the horrors and evils leapt from the box, the only thing that remained inside was hope. Yet, it seems that this piece shows how there is no hope for humanity – it is a lost cause. Or, the change should start from ourselves firstly, it is on us to break the generational patterns of oppression and no one will be free until everyone is free. Until then, we are stuck in this aimless loop of intellectual bickering while the societies’ poorest and the marginalized are being exploited and dying.
Credits:
Director: Miloš Lolić// Dramaturgy and adaptation: Periša Perišić, Ivona Rieger, Vedrana Klepica Scenography: Miloš Lolić//Costumes: Marta Žegura
For further information visit: Zekaem.hr
Nora Čulić Matošić (1998) is a student of Comparative Literature (MA) at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb. She has written theatre criticism for the Croatian radio programme Theatralia and web portal Kulturpunkt.hr. Besides theatre, her interests are other forms of performing arts (particularly dance performances) and film.
