On Tour

Today, our entire existence, spirituality and the purpose of culture, together with the survival of cultural events such as the International Small Scenes Theatre Festival in Rijeka (which has existed for more than twenty years) have all been put into question.

A slogan fitting to this modern reality and our fears and anxieties would be: "The theatre and modern times: from splendour to despair". Already seven years ago, we knew that the then-nascent crisis was not solely economic in nature, and that it was not merely a transitory phenomenon of limited scope. Today, we know that the very foundations of our notions of civilised life have been disturbed, as an increasing number of people are desperate, hungry and have lost faith in political solutions, while life itself has become a dangerous affair. On the other hand, technological development has become a force of terrific proportions, while the human superstructure has dissolved through worldview clashes and technological pragmatism.

In such a climate of dissatisfaction, digital alienation and economic selfishness, the human race is at risk for contracting new global neuroses, which have already started to appear from all ends, while our glorious civilisation today is, paradoxically, torn between splendour and despair. The plays that we have selected aim to describe the current state of the world - or at least to provide some food for thought. We believe that, among these plays, you will certainly be able to find traces of those problems that are preoccupying you: the arrogance of modern people who live for spending and entertainment while forgetting their own responsibilities in Bourgeoisie by the Theatre on the Balustrade (Divadlo na Zabradli) from Prague; crisis, love and despair in Kazimir and Karolina by "Atelje 212" from Belgrade; human irrationality, limited thinking and backwardness in The Broken Jug by Jugoslav Dramma Theatre; or perhaps war, violence and the destructive nature of humankind in Aleksandra Zec by the HKD Theatre in Rijeka. On offer will also be tales about modern demons i.e. A Short Story on the Antichrist by the Bitef theatre from Belgrade; on manipulation and one-upmanship in The Lesson by the national theatre "I. L. Caragiale" from Bucharest; on loneliness and terrorism in The Cellphone by the theatre "Moruzgva" from Zagreb; and on the eros of destruction in the play Hedda Gabler by the Slovenian National Theatre from Maribor.