A trans-Atlantic theatrical project of La MaMa’s Great Jones Repertory Co., New York
MAUD DINAND
Director of Outreach at Quendra Multimedia and at the La MaMa Trojan Women Project
La MaMa Theatre, New York, in association with Qendra Multimedia, Prishtina,
My Balkans, New York & Theater Atelje 212, Belgrade
present: BALKAN BORDELLO - premiere 3 November 2021
in Prishtina during the KOSOVO THEATER SHOWCASE
Written by: Jeton Neziraj - Directed by: Blerta Neziraj
With:?Onni Johnson,?Svetozar Cvetkovi?,?George Drance, Eugene the Poogene,?Valois Mickens,?John Gutierrez,?Mattie Barber-Bockelman,?Ivan Mihailovi?,?Matt Nasser, Verona Koxha.
Composer: Gabriele Marangoni? - Costumes: Gabriel Berry - Stage design: Nico de Rooij
Choreographer: Gjergj Prevazi - Lighting design: Yann Perregaux
Dramaturges: Dimitrije Kokanov,?Zishan Ugurlu
Translated in English by Alexandra Channer and published in the U.S. by Laertes Books
Producer of the Balkan Bordello: Beka Vu?o ? - Production coordinator: Maud Dinand
Balkan Bordello: The Saga of a Balkan Family?is based on Aeschylus’ trilogy?The Oresteia. As an avatar of the modern world, Agamemnon returns triumphant from the battlefield, having reduced the enemy city to ashes. But the fever and enthusiasm that come from inglorious victories are blood animals—they feed and live on blood….. He is killed by his wife…But the cycle of violence cannot be easily closed, because “any blood shed, evokes new blood,” she must now be killed by her son, Orestes, who, together with his boyfriend, Pilad, a choreographer, returns from Berlin where he was living as a refugee.
This is the bedrock of this play, which, with black humor, touches on the very fabric of the Balkan temperament, traces the morbidity of the human soul and highlights the stupidity and naiveté of an era being built on the foundations of violence, intolerance and hatred. The characters surrender to fate and nearly unconsciously fall into the trap of discontent and destruction.?
Balkan Bordello?is a play about traumatized societies that eat themselves. It confronts us with war as a machinery of destruction where life and normalcy capitulate in the face of humans’ infidelities and evils.
Democracy cannot be taken for granted. The battle for it must be ongoing. Any fluctuation from this goal gives way to ghosts of war, abusers of power and autocrats who see the fate of the societies they rule as a game of Russian roulette.?
领英推荐
The same examples we had yesterday, we still have today.?The bloodied Balkans of the 90s and the Balkans thirsting for revenge now. Contemporary Hungary led by autocrat Orbán, where civil liberties are stolen at every step. Post-Trump America, where deceived Americans continue to see wall-to-wall dreams. Turkey and Russia where people live in fear of state dictatorship. Germany, which continues to be haunted by the living ghosts of Nazism. Israeli soldiers flattening Palestinian cities. Hamas Palestinians firing rockets at Israeli cities. A Syria made flat… for God’s sake, do we even know by whom?
Balkan Bordello?is an epic tale for the age of insanity we are currently living in.?
“Borrowing the setting from the Oresteia, the play evokes an archetypal society which emerges from the war in a state of confusion, where the old order and power relations have been subverted, and the new does not seem to have any legitimacy because it is based on pure force”.?Anna Di Lellio
Jeton Neziraj?is the Director of?Qendra Multimedia, after serving as the Artistic Director of the National Theatre of Kosovo. He has written over 25 plays that have been staged, translated and published in more than 15 languages. As a playwright, he has worked with theatres and companies including?La MaMa in New York and Volksbühne in Berlin.?His plays have won numerous prizes and have been performed in theatre festivals throughout Europe.?The German theatre magazine?Theater der Zeit?and the German Radio?Deutschlandfunk Kultur?have described him as ‘Kafka of the Balkans’, while?Los Angeles Times?called him “a world- class playwright who challenges our complacency at every twist and turn”.?
Blerta Neziraj?has been directing plays in Kosovo and Internationally, and their productions toured extensively abroad (Vidy/Lausanne, Piccolo Theater/Milano, Volkstheater/Vienna. Volksbhune/Berlin…). She was a 2018 member of the Lincoln Center Theatre Directors Lab and in the Spring 2019, she recreated?55 Shades of Gayat La MaMa in New York.??She has earned rewards (including “The best directing for 2020”, in Kosovo) and great local and international reviews as a director.??The Guardian described her as?"one?of?the country’s leading?directors.", while The Stage?described her shows as “uncompromising…??necessary…??bold?and?powerful”.?
TOUR SCHEDULE:?
PRISHTINA, KOSOVO??- November 3, 2021 : Oda Theatre, Prishtina, Kosovo (1 show, part of Kosovo Theatre Showcase festival)?
GJILAN, KOSOVO?- November 4, 2021: City Theater Gjilan, Kosovo (1 show, part of Kosovo Theatre Showcase festival);?
FERIZAJ, KOSOVO?- November 5, 2021: City Theater of Ferizaj, Kosovo (1 show, part of Kosovo Theatre Showcase);?
TIRANA, ALBANIA?- November 6, 2021: Experimental Theater in Tirana, Albania (1 show);?
BELGRADE, SERBIA?- November 8 & 9, 2021: Atelje 212, Belgrade, Serbia (2 shows);?
PRISHTINA, KOSOVO?- November 11 & 12, 2021: Teatri Oda, Prishtina, Kosovo (2 shows);?
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NEW YORK, USA?– March 25th – April 10th 2022: La MaMa, Ellen Stewart Theatre (10 shows)
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