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[Season 2019/2020] US AND THEM directed by Dario Harjaček @Zagreb Youth Theatre

Auctorial project by Dario Harjaček, Katarina Pejović, ZKM Theatre ensemble and ZKM Drama Studio participants.

„Us and Them” by Dario Harjaček and Katarina Pejović speaks about a pressing issue: educational process within the school system. 

The theme is very urgent and complex, not only because of the recent newspaper articles about the strike of educational workers, the implementation of the Croatian educational system reform known as School for Life, the religious instruction classes that are the result of the agreements with the Vatican, various opinions what school and the whole educational system should be but isn’t, since it has been producing the generations of young people who can claim they have gained more knowledge and competence thanks to their own effort than to the efficiency of the educational system from which they have adopted attitudes and values that have less and less to do with free, open minded people who will change the world. 

The new project on which Dario Harjaček has once again joined forces with Katarina Pejović is along the lines of their very successful theatrical research in The Kids, produced by the Split City Youth Theatre (2016), in which they supplied the framework of the issue they wanted to challenge and tried to find the answers in the work with actors.

o find the answers to the questions of the Croatian educational system is a challenge not many would accept. Dario Harjaček’s past work as a director, dramatist, writer and dramaturge is in itself a guarantee that this project will achieve its set goals.

Premiere: 26 November 2019.

Director: Dario Harjaček Dramaturge: Katarina Pejović Costume designer: Doris Kristić Set designer: Vesna Režić Composer: Damir Šimunović Scenic movement assistent: Tamara Curić Lighting designer: Aleksandar Čavlek Project assistants: Katja Grcić, Dorotea Šušak Assistant costume designer: Rea Janjić Assistant set designer: Tamara Pavković ZKM Drama Studio pedagogue: Marija Bitunjac

Stage manager: Petra Prša

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[Season 2019/2020] THE ETERNAL PHILISTINE directed by Anestis Azas @Zagreb Youth Theatre

Based on the novel written by Ödön von Horváth. The play is a co-production between Zagreb Youth Theatre, Schauspiel Stuttgart and Nowy Teatr from Warsaw.

The Eternal Philistine directed by Anestis Azas tells the tale about a young man who travels around Europe to find a rich woman who will provide for his every whim. However, that is only the framework of the story that reveals today’s Europe on the verge of fascism and its Philistine character pushing it over the edge.

The Eternal Philistine is a production created within the two-year-long project Europe Ensemble, funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation and involving Schauspiel Stuttgart, Nowy Teatr from Warsaw, whose founder and artistic director is Krzysztof Warlikowski, one of the most important European theatre directors, and Zagreb Youth Theatre. The Europe Ensemble is meant to be a platform for questioning the European identity at the moment when the social climate rapidly changes. It is composed of one actress and one actor from the three partnering theatres.

The Europe Ensemble does not interpret the novel written in 1930 as a tale from the past, when everything was different than today. It presents it as a multilingual road trip with rhythm and music, a road trip through Europe which reveals the complex interweaving of the present and the past.

The first question, how the Europe Ensemble can revive that novel on the stage, concerns the language: Will we settle for English, the only language everyone has a good command of, the language that has already been used in the two previous productions of the Europe Ensemble in Stuttgart and Warsaw? Or will we embark on the adventure of using the Ensemble’s multilingualism as a theatrical potential? An important analogy provides the answer: the Europe Ensemble moves across the borders of individual nations and plunges into different languages in a way similar to that of The Eternal Philistine protagonist.

Premiere: 10 October 2019.

Artistic assistant: Oliver Frljić

Stage adaptation and dramaturgy: Armin Kerber

Set design: Igor Pauška

Costume design: Marta Žegura

Music: Alen Sinkauz and Nenad Sinkauz

Light design: Aleksandar Čavlek

Video design: Lovro Mrđen

Assistant director: Rajna Racz

Assistant dramaturge: Nikolina Bogdanović

Language advisor at rehearsals: Ivana Jurić 

Artistic director of the Europe Ensemble project: Oliver Frljić

Stage manager: Milica Sinkauz

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[Season 2019/2020] IT’S FINE AS LONG AS WE DIE IN DUE ORDER directed by  Aleksandar Švabić @Zagreb Youth Theatre

Ivor Martinić found his place among the most prominent Croatian contemporary authors early in career. His works play with familiar motives in unfamiliar ways with deadpan humour and a life-saving dose of (self)irony. 

It’s Fine as Long as We Die in Due Order is a play that revolves around a young man who is a millennial variation of Godot bound for the USA. His family is waiting for him to say goodbye before he leaves. Not only is the text of the play good staging material but it also reads well on its own. There are a number of metatheatrical/metatextual references to (talented human) cogs in the theatrical engine.

Martinić has developed a distinct poetics that combines distantly related dramatic situations into thematic groups with a style that is simple and dense with meaning, just like his dramatic situations. Intently and consistently he runs away from sentimentality, expressing the powerful experiences of his characters through stage directions and silent blanks to be filled by acting and reader’s imagination.

The main strength of this piece and, at the same time, its main pitfall in terms of where performance could go wrong is how Martinić plays with sentimentality or to be more precise, with the cheesy bits of theatrical discourse on one hand and the inherent incapability of the theatre to reflect reality without compressing the time needed to express what we think.

Premiere: 21 September 2019

Director: Aleksandar Švabić Dramaturge: Ivan Penović Stage designer/visual identity: Ana Savić Gecan Costume designer: Marta Žegura Music: Alen Sinkauz and Nenad Sinkauz Stage movement: Petra Hrašćanec Light: Aleksandar Čavlek

Stage manager: Stella Švacov Miletić

Trailer:

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[Season 2018/2019] THREE X AND I directed by  Arija Rizvić & Filip Nola @Zagreb Youth Theatre

Project Inkubator is designed as a platform where members of #zekaem ensemble develop their own artistic expression in a wider performing context, and represent a space of strong creative energy and authorial development.

The text of this play was written by Filip Nola who is a longtime member of the #zekaem ensemble and a well-respected film and television actor.

“Three X and I” is a thriller with elements of the comedy of the absurd, which begins after an employee in a wealthy and mysterious company captivates two clever and attractive candidates for a fictional job. 

Kidnapping turns into a strange and weird game that reveals the manipulation of sexual and other social interactions, contrasts the feminine and masculine views of the most intimate events and places of the human being and compares the beautiful and dark sides of sexuality.

Opening night: May 24th 2019

Directed by: Arija Rizvić, Filip Nola

Played by: Anđela Ramljak, Mateo Videk, Petra Svrtan and Paško Vukasović

Watch a trailer here:

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ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL SEASON @zekaem! (2018/2019)

Another successful season is behind us! 

During the last season the total of 44 242 viewers that enjoyed our performances!

During the season we had:

- 8 premieres

- 280 professional performances at #zekaem, at the festival stages and other theatres

- got 10 awards

- 17 performances with subtitles in English language

During the summer we will have 5 guest performances at international festivals in Montenegro, North Macedonia, Croatia and Poland!

In this season four of our plays got their 50th performance: 

- Black Mother Earth

- Clean and heathy home, that’s my thing

- Sherlock Holmes

- The heroes of Pavlova Street

Thank you for being part of our last season, we couldn’t do this without you! For news regarding the next season in #zekaem make sure to follow us on our Facebook, Instagram & Twitter and visit our webpage www.zekaem.hr! 

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[Season 2018/2019] EICHMANN IN JERUSALEM directed by  Jernej Lorenci @Zagreb Youth Theatre

If we take a closer look at the elements of a court trial and ignore for a moment its content, focusing instead on its form, structure, and the internal forces that define the power relationship between the participants, we shall inevitably arrive at a conclusion that trial is a space of performance. 

Hannah Arendt was aware of this theatrical quality as she reported from the trial to the war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem in 1961 and came up with the concept of the banality of evil that later became her distinguishing mark in philosophy and much further beyond. It was this awareness of the theatrics that opened a can of worms for controversial interpretations of the banality of evil concept. As she observed the bureaucratic mindset of Eichmann, Arendt soon abandoned the premise of the deep and radical nature of evil to come to see it as banal, shallow, and therefore plain to see but hard to understand exactly because of its plainness.

This idea was a stepping stone to Jernej Lorenci and his associates to investigate historical facts, sociological and philosophical texts, personal insights of the performers, as well as the familiar elements of popular culture in order to rationalise and contextualise evil and its true consequences.

Opening night: 22 March 2019

Based on the book by Hannah Arendt

Director: Jernej Lorenci Dramaturge: Matic Starina Stage designer: Branko Hojnik Costume designer: Belinda Radulović Choreographer: Gregor Luštek Music: Branko Rožman Assistant directors: Aleksandar Švabić, Rajna Racz and Tim Hrvaćanin Costume design assistants: Bernarda Popelar Lesjak and Marta Žegura

Stage manager: Stella Švacov Miletić

Trailer:

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[Season 2018/2019] YOUTH WITHOUT GOD directed by Borut Šeparović @Zagreb Youth Theatre

The exposure of the political system through clear detection of what consitutes a part of its paradigm and what not, and the answer to the question what happens with the empty interspace between the two, are certainly the main qualities of Ödön von Horváth’s work, which are probably most evident in his novel Youth Without God(Jugend ohne Gott, 1938).

n Youth Without God the story is triggered by a schoolteacher who reprimands his student for a politically incorrect comment, and by a collective attack on a weak student, in public, in the middle of the school corridor. However, asked if they are sorry about what they did, the culprits in both cases give a cold, negative answer, which makes Von Horváth’s schoolteacher ask himself with good reason: „What will this generation be like? Will they be strong or just cruel?“

The answer to that question comes almost immediately from the system itself: it is the generation which must be „morally raised for war“. Berardi’s generation, on the other hand, does not trust the system, or feels cheated, manipulated and abandoned by the system, and decides to do the job of „morally raising for war“ by itself.

In our project, the anti-heroes assume the role of the modern European youth without God. In Ödön von Horváth’s novel, the conformist teacher calls the murder committed by his students „an outburst of violent individualism“, in order not to alarm the public.

Author and director: Borut Šeparović Script: Borut Šeparović, Ivana Vuković Dramaturgy: Borut Šeparović, Ivana Vuković Scenic movement: Damir Klemenić Set design: Borut Šeparović, Konrad Mulvaj

Played by Rakan Rushaidat, Boris Barukčić, Lucija Dujmović, Ivana Gulin, Ugo Korani, Ivan Pašalić and Bernard Tomić!

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[Season 2018/2019] PANSION EDEN directed by Árpád Schilling @Zagreb Youth Theatre

“Pansion Eden” directed by Árpád Schilling for ZKM Theatre is Schilling’s first theatre direction in Croatia. He came to Zagreb with an idea of a script and together with actors developed his project which long bore the working title of „Furgon“ before it was renamed into Pansion Eden once it was finished.

In “Pansion Eden” Schilling tells a story about dreams, fears and desires of a family which tries to survive in time of war and capitalist rules, when they are forced to do certain ugly things they later try to hide. Why the working title of „Furgon“, which is in both Hungarian and Croatian the word for a „van“ or „lorry“? With his co-authors Juli Jakab and Éva Zabezsinszkij, Schilling came to Zagreb with a very disturbing story from Hungary, which just had its epilogue in court when they were beginning to work on the plot for the project. 

The story was about 71 people who were left to suffocate in a refrigerator lorry by a people-smuggling gang who was well aware that such a vehicle was not suitable for transportation of living human beings. Did those concerned feel responsible, and if they did, to what extent? When the secrets of the family in Pansion Eden begin to emerge, when the family members are forced to admit what they have done, their lies, fears and desires surface together with the abuse of power, corruption and religious beliefs.

Opening night: December 15, 2018

More information: www.zekaem.hr

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[Season 2018/2019] HUDDERSFIELD directed by Rene Medvešek @Zagreb Youth Theatre

Uglješa Šajtinac is one of the most important contemporary Serbian playwrights and winner of a number of awards, including the European Union Prize for Literature and the Jovan Sterija Popović Award 2005 for his play Huddersfield, which gained cult status in its ten-year-long life on the stage of the Yugoslav Drama Theatre, and was turned into a homonymous, multiply-awarded film.

At a recently held „Reading Theatre“ public discussion in ZKM Theatre, Šajtinac summarized the plot of his masterfully written play in two simple sentences: „Four former classmates gather together in an apartment and act out a male drama with characters nobody likes. If Igor hadn’t come from Huddersfield after ten years of absence, they would have never met; he lures them out of their holes to show their real faces of a lost generation and men who are generally more pathetic than women…“

„You see, Huddersfield sounds sunny to me“, says one of the protagonists near the end of the play, and that simple statement reflects the brutal but incredibly porous world of this exceptional drama.

Huddersfield is a dark, funny and moving story about a generation of thirty-year-olds at the beginning of a new millenium, a generation which finds it hard to put the consequences of the war behind them, and sees no sing of a better future. In such circumstances and at a time of a bargain sale of moral and material values, even the rainy Yorkshire suburb seems a promised land. The return of one of the protagonists from that promised land triggers off the unsolved issues and traumas from the time they all considered long forgotten.

Opening night: October 27, 2018

More information: bit.ly/ZKM_Huddersfield

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#zekaem on #SocialMedia!

Zagreb Youth Theatre is active on various social media channels! Make sure to follow us at Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest for the latest news on our performances! 

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ORCHESTRA REHEARSAL - Trailer

The trailer for our new play “Orchestra Rehearsal” is out!

The play is made by Federico Fellini’s film “Prova d'orchestra” from 1978!

Director and scenographer: Edvin Liverić Dramaturgy: Nina Mitrović Composers: Nino Rota & Merima Ključo

On the schedule:

September: 14th, 15th, 16th, 23rd, 25th, 28th, 29th

October: 4th, 5th, 6th,7th

For tickets and more information about the play visit our webpage www.zekaem.hr!

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New Season 2018/2019

The schedule for the beginning of the season 2018/2019 is online at www.zekaem.hr! 

September:

Orchestra Rehearsal (#premiere)

What Is Missing

Black Mother Earth

October:

Clean and Healthy Home, That’s My Thing

Orchestra Rehearsal

Alice In Wonderland

Titus Andronicus

Human Voice

Huddersfield (#premiere)

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Last performances in season 2017/2018

It’s pretty late #InTheSeason, but you can still catch some of the best plays in #zekaem! 

Until the end of the season don’t miss the performances of:

Healthy And Clean Home, That’s My Thing (June 6th & 7th)

What Is Missing (June 13th & 15th)

Black Mother Earth (June 16th & 17th)

The Human Voice (21st & 23rd)

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[Season 2017/2018] TITUS ADRONICUS directed by Igor Vuk Torbica @Zagreb Youth Theatre

Wouldn’t it be nice to sit back comfortably in the auditorium of the Istra Hall of the Zagreb Youth Theatre and watch Titus Andronicus as if it were a fairy tale of carnage from the times long, long gone?

What a wonderful world it would be! A world rid of the ambition for power, of rigid adherence to rules long obsolete, of violence, sexism, racism, and all other kinds of discrimination and poverty. A world glued together not by public displays of patriotism and hatred of the other, but by the pervasive sense of one-and-the-sameness. A world in which the male and female principles complement instead of exclude each other.

This is the first of the ten Shakespeare’s tragedies, allegedly dating from 1592, or a little earlier, depending on the sources. It immediately follows his historical tetralogy (Henry VI and Richard III). Some say that it provoked the most controversial interpretations on stage of all his plays. Originally, it was received with acclaim and played for long before its audience. Then came four centuries of complete silence, save for the vile offences of his critics and literary scholars, who even denied Shakespeare the authorship of the piece at some point.

Titus Andronicus was branded as the bloodiest of all Shakespeare’s plays – quite mistakenly, as the body count is greater in Richard III – as if the hypocritical West wanted to renounce its bloodthirsty nature, at least in art, even though it was nurturing and advancing it at every step of its historical path.

The play premiered on Mrch 23rd 2018 and is directed by Igor Vuk Torbica and played by Sreten Mokrović, Katarina Bistrović Darvaš, Rakan Rushaidat, Mia Biondić, Petar Leventić, Adrian Pezdirc, Dado Ćosić, Vedran Živolić, Frano Mašković, Jasmin Telalović, Robert Budak and Milivoj Beader.

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[Season 2017/2018] WHAT IS MISSING directed by Selma Spahić @Zagreb Youth Theatre

Mount Everest works equally well as a simple geographic fact and as a broadly applicable metaphor. The highest mountain in the world, with a peak settled at an altitude of over eight thousand meters, is deeply ingrained in the uncertain existence verging on life and death in both these senses. As the witnesses who have managed to climb on top and return testify, standing on its snow-clad pinnacle one suddenly loses the decision-making power, and yet has never felt more determined in the need to make pivotal decisions. The first of which is most definitely whether to stay or to go.

The characters in this play are also about to face decisions. Two sisters have to decide how to cope with the loss of their mother, who abandoned them when they were little girls.

A sixteen-year-old boy from a troubled family is trying to escape to the world of adults, exploring his homosexuality for the first time. His father, suddenly and against his will forced to re-examine age-long moral values and views. Or a young couple about to be married, facing the questions they never spoke out loud in their relationship. In that sense, an outlook on family as a very precisely defined fact opens, as well as on possibilities of personal choice at the moment of its breakdown under the burden of social pressure or the impossibility of facing oneself.

All the characters in this play remain alone in their quests, they never become close with each other, they fail to obtain the answers they were searching for, they fail and remain with their cracks and traumas, but, as Leonard Cohen’s line says, there is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.

The performance is played by Katarina Bistrović Darvaš, Zoran Čubrilo, Nataša Dangubić, Doris Šarić Kukuljica, Adrian Pezdirc, Frano Mašković, Milica Manojlović, Dora Polićc Vitez and Goran Guksić and it premiered on 16th of December 2017!

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#zekaem season 2017/2018

In the current season #zekaem will celebrate its 70th anniversary!  Therefore, the art program will be a made out of what #zekaem has been doing and promoting all these years: from children's performances, teenagers' performances, new literary readings, the premiere of contemporary Croatian drama and much more!

In the last season #zekaem produced 231 performances, and performed 23 times on events and festivals in Croatia and abroad. Mentioned programmes were seen by a total of 41,799 viewers and our performances won a total of 16 prestigious awards!

Two performances already premiered this season: “Healthy and clean home, that’s what I like” directed by Kristijan Ugrina and a literature classic by Lewis Caroll “Alice in Wonderland” directed by Renata Carola Gatica.

Scheduled to premiere in 2017/2018 season are: “The thing that’s missing” written by Tomislav Zajec and directed by Selma Spahić, “Human voice” directed by Bojan Đorđev, „Tit Andronik” by Igor Vuk Torbica and “Orchestra rehearsal” by Edvin Liverić.

Make sure to visit www.zekaem.hr and follow us on our social media channels for more information regarding the performances!

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[Season 2017/2018] ALICE IN WONDERLAND directed by Renata Carola Gatica @Zagreb Youth Theatre

“Alice In Wonderlad” is a well known story written in 1865 by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the Lewis Caroll pseudonym. The play directed by Renata Carola Gatica premiered on November 18th.

In the #zekaem play Alice doesn’t want to grow up and her main intention is to stay in the innocent childhood time.

The performance is played by Anđela Ramljak, Barbara Prpić, Marica Vidušić, Rakan Rushaidat, Dado Ćosić, Edvin Liverić, Vedran Živolić, Sreten Mokrović, Petar Leventić, Tina Orlandini, Mateo Videk and Robert Budak.