Újvidéki Színház/Novi Sad Theatre

Director András Urbán
Assistant director Judit Ferenc
Dramaturge Kata Gyarmati
Set designer András Urbán
Costume designer Marina Sremac
Composer Attila Antal
Lighting designer Róbert Majoros
Sound designer Tibor Bíró, Attila Lukács
Advisor to the director Róbert Lénárd
Director of photography Srđan Doroški

Cast
Gabriella Crnkovity
Emina Elor
Ágota Ferenc
Szilvia Krizsán
Ágota Szilágyi
István Kőrösi
Dániel Huszta
Attila Német
Árpád Mészáros
Zoltán Sirmer
Gábor Pongó

Neoplanta is not only about Novi Sad; it also represents a paradigm of the whole of Europe, especially the Balkans and their grotesquely tragic modern history of the past century. This was supposed to be an era of “infinite and rapid” progress, but what we actually see is progress in its bloodiest, cruellest, most impersonal and chauvinistic form. The staging tackles several layers of modern problems; the confrontation with reality is limited and depraved, and the confrontation with history even more so – the view is blurred by sentimentality and nostalgia.
In some places the production cynically handles the turbulent history of Novi Sad, which was granted municipal rights in 1748 by Maria Theresa, who proclaimed that each nation living in the town should name it in its own language. The openness to cohabitation of different cultures could be understood as a cosmopolitan tolerance of freedom, but as one follows the series of polemic historical moments representing the key events in the life of Novi Sad one actually follows a careful, thorough, humorous, and self-ironic analysis of a merciless struggle in which the culprits cease to be identified, as everyone is responsible. In the meantime, history opportunistically inclines one way or the other, and the town with it – along with the people.