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In the heart of old Vienna, a passionate new musical. |
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Music: SERGEI DREZNIN Text: William Shakespeare Dialogue: KRASSNIJ ANGEL COMPANY with the contributions from MIROSLAV PRSTOJEVIC |
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Composers Notes
We came from Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia, Russia, the United States and Austria, and met here in Vienna, where every visitor wandering the ancient narrow streets can feel how the past mingles with the present. Where else to create a show in which Shakespeare's play is pierced through with scenes from the war in Bosnia, part of Austria's 19th century empire, now just an hour's flight away? As the Broadway hit "Rent" brought Puccini opera into the 1990s world of New York's Lower East Side, we take a classic and create a modern, multiethnic musical. Shakespeare's immortal lines are sung and infused with new life through the rhythmical power of rap, the seductive sounds of rock and the sheer appeal of jazz. Through this, we seek to share the beauty, passion and tragicomedy of our world as it looks on the verge of a new millenium. After playing in Austria, Croatia and Bosnia we bring our production back to its birthplace Vienna, where its 1995 premiere -- on the day the Dayton peace accord was reached. In September 1996 production opened the International Multicultural Theater Festival In Vienna.
Excerpts
from reviews
"Explosive music theater...fresh images, touching moments"Vienna daily Kronen Zeitung
"Seven young mimes, seven personalities ...the music has all the makings of a hit...The groups´s encore is 'A Tune For Bosnia'. This must be heard to be believed"Vienna daily Die Presse
"...deeply emotional experince for actors and audience"Vienna daily Täglich Alles
"Interesting score...combining jazz elements with expressionism"Spanish news agency EFE
"...they succeed in transmitting the whole range of emotions and conflicts, from the most subleme to the grotesque"Spanish daily El Pais
"...the composer found about the only way to transfer the war conflicts to the stage"Feral Tribune, Croatia
"They come from Zagreb, Louisiana, Moskau, Vienna, Zenica, Fohnsdorf and Sarajevo. They live and convincingly convey a message that is timeless and valid anywhere in the world: the fate of the individual -- and only that -- shows the deadly absurdity of war".Innsbruck daily Tiroler Tageszeitung"From reality to the stage: Moslem Juliet and Serb Romeo are a triumph in Vienna"Il Messaggero, Milan
Story
Prologue. Division of Sarajevo. UN officer tries to stop the fight, but is himself involved in ădirty" deals with Romeo: trading cars and petrol and...smuggling people out of Sarajevo.
Cafe (Kafana) ăCasper". A place where the underworld meets elite visitors like CNN's Christiane Amanpour and where Romeo meets his beautiful Juliet. Police arrive and arrest everybody for violating the curfew. Romeo and Juliet realize, that, fatally, they belong to one another, but also to to different ethnic groups. He is Serb, she is Muslim. In the police prison cell, they dream of a life in Mantua, far from the war and siege ...
In order to be able to flee through Roman Catholic Croatia they change religions and marry in a Catholic church.
Back in Kafana ăCasper" the events take a fatal turn: Tybalt kills Mercutio, Romeo takes revenge for his friend - and himself becomes a killer. He must flee Sarajevo. Don Lorenz - a Sarajevo gangster - takes care of everything. The other side won´t shoot. And Juliet can go with Romeo! But something goes wrong. At 4 p.m. two shots are fired on Vrbanja bridge. Romeo and Juliet die in each other´s arms.
The waiter of the Cafana ăKasper" sells the ăRomeo and Juliet of Sarajevo" story to a foreign reporter for $ 6000.
They become an international symbol of the war.
Sarajevo ...
...became a symbol of suffering. Before the war it was known for its particular enjoyment of life. It had Yugoslavia´s best rock music, it was the home of film director Emir Kusturica, a town suffused with pride and elegance, epitomized in its striking women, the jewelry of its many goldsmiths, the Ray -Ban sunglasses and Levi 501 jeans that were the virtual uniform of its youth. Sarajevo celebrated life by acquiring its flashiest accoutrements. Even during the war, it was not only a matter of survival but also of essential style to have the best handset radios for communication, fastest 4-wheel drive, coolest shades or greatest gun. Black humour and the readiness to have a good time survived the tragedy, too: many people regularly carried sleeping bags, beating curfew by bedding down wherever it found them. Even under siege, women donned fur coats and makeup: to salvage the appearance of life, no sacrifice was spared.
Romeo and Juliet (a real event)
In May 1993, Bosko Brkic, a Serb, and Admira Ismic, a Muslim, both 25 and lovers long before Bosnia´s war slashed thier ethnic groups apart, decided to seek a future outside besieged, gun-battered Sarajevo. Throughout the war, the Serbs and thier Croat and Muslim foes mantained illegal trading ties, smuggling goods and people across frontlines for high price. Bosko and Admira tapped connections, and arranged to dash toward what they hoped would be freedom across the city´s Vrbanja bridge, a killing ground throughout the war. They had almost made it when gunshots rang out. Brkic died instantly. Ismic, severely wounded, crawled toward him and died in his embrace. The bodies of Sarajevo´s Romeo and Juliet lay in no man´s land for a week before the Serbs retrieved and buried them in their part of the city. After the war ended, and all of Sarajevo fell under majority Muslim control, Ismic´s father reburied them in Lion´s Cemetery, alongside thousands of other victims of Sarajevo´s siege.