Romano Nikolić created Medea for the 21st Century
With this performance, Arterarij confirms its status as a (small, independent) theater that
he boldly tackles topics that everyone else is silent about.
…This intimate space works powerfully for a play that broke down all the walls of the theater, because the audience (there are only twenty-five of them) literally breathes into the faces of the actors, it is a guest in their living room, a voyeur of the tragedy. And they are a married couple with a child, well-to-do people who can afford a house with an apple tree and a slide in the garden. They are also people who love each other, who are not together by chance. And yet everything leads to tragedy. How and why? Where is that human firing point? These are the questions that this play explores. Olja Lozica has created sentences from seemingly everyday sentences, so common in domestic communication, that are a signpost for both happiness and the greatest misfortune. There are literally oceans in every man and some unfathomable worlds in him, says the play. And it scares, because what if Medea’s tragedy can happen to us too?
Frano Mašković and Anita Matić Delić confirm themselves with these roles as two truly great actors, and the champion of Kerempuh is also a great surprise in a big dramatic role. They have the most difficult acting task here, because nothing protects them from the audience, and they turned that to their advantage. They are so focused on each other that they get real acting power out of it; each of their emotions is sincere, conveyed with the right measure, deeply experienced…
You watch them and you have to believe them. Their tragedy shakes you to the core, because each of us has been in their shoes. They left us, cheated, and we left, cheated… With this performance, Arterarij confirms its status as a (small, independent) theater that bravely grapples with topics that everyone else is silent about. They thus become a kind of voice of conscience, not only for the theater, but also for society as a whole. Playwright Olja Lozica in the play “There are some worlds at the bottom of the ocean” wove a signpost for the greatest disaster.”
BOJANA RADOVIĆ