Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb

Director Paolo Magelli
Dramaturg Željka Udovičić Pleština
Composer Arturo Annecchino
Set Designers Numen and Ivana Jonke
Costume Designer Leo Kulaš
Lighting Designers Aleksandar Čavlek, Sven Jonke and Paolo Magelli
Assistant to Director Lovro Krsnik in Žad Novak
Assistant to Composer Ivan Colarić
Assistant to Costume Designer Anamarija Filipović Srhoj

Cast

Part 1: The Woman
Livio Badurina
Lana Barić
Nikša Kušelj
Milan Pleština
Goran Grgić
Zijad Gračić
Ivan Vukelić
Ivan Colarić
Silvio Mumelaš
Petra Svrtan
Iva Mihalić
Jelena Perčin
Ana Begić
Dora Lipovčan

Part 2: Café du Dôme
Lana Barić
Goran Grgić
Zijad Gračić
Ivan Vukelić
Milan Pleština
Livio Badurina
Nikša Kušelj
Silvio Mumelaš
Ivan Colarić
Iva Mihalić
Ana Begić
Dora Lipovčan
Jelena Perčin
Petra Svrtan

Croatian playwright Josip Kosor is as one of the most widely translated Croatian playwrights of the first half of the 20th century. He was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize. The current staging of his plays The Woman and Café du Dôme is directed by the celebrated Italian director Paolo Magelli, who has worked for decades in Croatia and Slovenia. Interestingly, it was as early as in 1934 that the last staging of a Josip Kosor play took place at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, Passion’s Furnace, directed by Branko Gavella. It was this early play by Kosor that attracted the attention of European intellectuals. In his expressionist plays, he clearly goes beyond realism and portrays the interiors of situations and characters, governed by their subconscious, instincts and passions. Kosor passionately advocated love, morality and purity in a world that has abandoned and lost its humanity.

Focusing on the dilemma of its female protagonist Limunka, The Woman establishes a typical Expressionist polarization between the material and the spiritual, the concrete and the abstract, which highlights the urgency of a search for a paradise lost, filled with true love and happiness. Rebellion against social norms, glorification of the ideal of femininity and a search for true love are common motifs of all Kosor’s plays.

In Café du Dôme Kosor tells a story of bohemian artists in a famous Parisian café to address compromises that rule the world, as well as the dependency of culture and art on the centres of ideological power. With his critique of society and bestial capitalism, Kosor does not intend to solve anything, since he is interested in the impact of political realism on broader spiritual dimension of social relations.

Slovene surtitles