NETA News

Two premieres will open in the 2015 NETA International Theatre Festival: Hura, Nosferatu by Andrej Skubic, directed by Simona Semenic – August 29, starting at 18:00 in the Small Hall, and Chiril and Metodiu – who are you?! by Jordan Plevnes, directed by Martin Kocovski, September 2, 20:00, in the Painting Hall. The two co-productions are brought to stage especially for the Festival, meeting the NETA purpose – to create a constructive artistic dialogue between the members of this prestigious cultural network, founded ten years ago in spirit of culture without frontiers. Hura, Nosferatu focuses on an issue that is rare and delicate – the Dravet syndrome. The author (renowned playwright, translator, dramaturge), and the director (dramaturge, successful screenwriter) are dramatically close to the subject of the play in their daily lives. The story is special, in which the real and the imaginary tangle, the feeling of guilt appears itself in a multitude of shapes, revealing unexpected meaning. The play attempts to acquaint us to the suffering of those that cannot be as everyone else, often misunderstood, sidelined and excluded by society. The universal topic of the play is guilt, surfacing as something irreparable happens and other regret not having done enough to help those with special needs. “Hura, Nosferatu” is a co-production of the National Theatre of Slovenia, Nova Gorica, The Youth Theatre in Ljubljana, and the B-51 (Ex Ponto) Cultural Society of Slovenia. The Chiril şi Metodiu - who are you?! play reminds us of the two advocates that brought the Slav civilisation on the stage of history, and which alongside Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, is one of “the saint patrons of Europe”, and that have translated the Bible in ancient Slavonic. Main characters in Jordan Plevnes’s play, our contemporaries are living far apart from each other, at world’s ends: Chiril is a teacher at the Columbia University, and Metodius – specialist engineer at Gazprom. A fierce family drama, unravelling between New York and Siberia, determines us to contemplate the human condition in uncertain times. Could love and unity civilisations coexist locally and globally when all hope is destroyed systematically? The answer reveals in the play as an international prayer, said in the theatre temple, built in 100 minutes anywhere in the world. Created as a drama to save the survivors, “Chiril and Metodiu – who are you?!” reminds us of a sacred principle of ancient tragedy, according to which Art must address all and each one. The show is a co-production of the “Voydan Cernodrinski” National Theatre of Prlep, the Drama Small Theatre of Bitola, the Macedonia Ohrid Summer Festival, the NETA network, the Sfumato Experimental Theatre from the Bulgarian capital city, and Kyklos Art Studio of Thessalonik, Greece.   All the plays included in the Festival are subtitled in Romanian and English!

Opening the 2015 NETA International Theatre Festival on August 28, A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of the most innovative staging of Shakespeare, a production of the Vaso Abashidze Music and Drama State Theatre from Tbilisi. The play, featured on the Studio Hall stage of the National Theatre in Bucharest, received several prized in the 2013 Duruji awards: Grand Prize of Georgia, Best Director – David Doiashvili, Best Actress – Ana Aleksishvili (as Helena), and Best Actor – Archil Sologashvili (Philostrat and Puck). Out of classic patterns, appreciate Georgian critics, no other staging of this play reveals as many connections between mystical characters and ideas hidden within the work of the greatest playwright of all times. The acting, the scene, light design, video projections, animations, as well as Chopin’s extraordinary music create a dreamy and enchanting environment that, combined with the terrifying nightmare, deeply affect audiences of all nationalities and believes worldwide. A director’s performance, the 2012 Tbilisi staging is one of the three consecutive shows created by Doiashvili, including the National Theatre of Croatia in 2013 and the National Theatre of Hungary in Budapest in 2014. Another Shakespeare play he directed, Macbeth, received 9 awards and 12 nominalizations at the 2010 International Theatre Festival of Croatia in Rijeka. A leading artist of Georgia, he received the “Medal of Honour” in 2003 and the “Holy Order” in 2013. David Doiashvili’s name is synonym to the rebirth of the theatre he governs for over a decade and his performance is confirmed by numerous participations in national and international festivals, personal awards and for the Vaso Abashidze Music and Drama State Theatre from Tbilisi. Born in 1972, the famous Georgian director attracted the world’s attention as he began his career, and was invited to direct The Witches of Salem at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, UK, after his graduation. During the same period, he staged the A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the firms time at the Royal National Theatre in London. Among other Shakespearian successes of Doiashvili are Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand, The Siege by Albert Camus, The house on the border by Sławomir Mrożek, Separation by Giorgi Eristavi, and more. Alongside with his passion for directing, David Doiashvili aims to integrate the Georgian theatre within the European theatres.