| IVAN BAKMAZ |
- A Drama -
TOPIC: the life of Humankind in ten lessons
NUMBER OF CHARACTERS: 1 male and 1 female (Hans and Greta)
NUMBER OF SCENES: 10
PLACE: a room
TIME: undetermined
SUMMARY:
A human life is condensed into ten lessons. Ten scenes display key situations in life from birth to death. The linguistic editing makes it questionable whether we really live or only rehearse our lives.
The play was first performed in Varaždin in 1976. It won the Prolog Magazine Award at The Days of Young Theatre Festival. The radio
adaptation of the play has been translated into English.
- The Passion -
TOPIC: the fortune of marginal individuals participating in great historical
events
NUMBER OF CHARACTERS: 7 male and 2 female
NUMBER OF ACTS: 1
PLACE: Golgotha
TIME: biblical - New Testament
SUMMARY:
According to the Bible, Simon of Cyrenaica was forced to assist Christ in carrying His Cross. Jesus dies at the hands of a torturer and Simon is crucified in his place to fulfil the requirements of the law. The play shows the path from the rejection to the acceptance of the suffering.
The play was first produced at the Zagreb Youth Theatre (ZKM) in 1977, and was performed at the Split Summer Festival in 1987; furthermore, it was proclaimed the play of the year in 1977. Translated into Spanish.
- A Morality Play -
with overtones of the popular theatre
NUMBER OF CHARACTERS: 13 (11 male and 2 female)
NUMBER OF ACTS: 9 scenes
PLACE: Joseph's home, The Desert, Potiphar's home, Pharaoh's Palace
TIME: The epoch of the Old Testament - hut it seems to he the present
WRITTEN IN: 1996
SUMMARY:
The hihlical story of Joseph of the coat of many colours and his brothers. A utopian morality play based on the motifs of the Croatian apocrypha about Joseph the Magnificent.
A story of humiliation and forgiveness which the writer tells with the intention of raising up from humiliation his contemporaries.
- A Comedy -
with overtones of a tragicomic grotesque
NUMBER OF CHARACTERS: 7 (5 male and 2 female)
NUMBER OF ACTS: 2
PLACE: Madame Hrvojka's salon
TIME: Contemporary
WRITTEN IN: 1996
SUMMARY:
The first act takes place before the war, and the second subsequent to it. Fans never give Madame Hrvojka a moment's peace, motivated more by their own self-interest and far less by adoration.
When they achieve their objectives, they turn their backs on her. A story of the fate of an exploited and then abandoned woman.
- A Drama -
THEME: Co-existence of the persecuted and the persecutor
NUMBER OF CHARACTERS: 11 (7 male, 4 female)
NUMBER OF ACTS: 3
PLACE: l. the drawing-room of an elegant villa; 2. an asylum; 3. the garden in front of the house
TIME: The 1990s
WRITTEN IN: 1995
SUMMARY:
With the democratic changes taking place in his homeland, Tom, a political
emigrant, returns home. His former official persecutor is the one who welcomes him home. Tom finds his former girl-friend in an asylum. She is mentally disturbed after having been recruited as a agent by the secret police when Torn fled. Tom's attitude and behaviour surprises both his girl-friend and his persecutor. At a celebration, Tom quietly disappears, and Young Man appears, introducing himself as Tom's son. He had decided to visit his father's native place after his death. They are shocked when they realise that Tom's soul had visited them to prevent
further bloodshed, which was on the cards because of the growing opposition and strain between the characters.
The play was published in the Literary Rijeka magazine - Issue No. 4, 1996.
- a drama -
THEME: The personal drama of the individual within the aura of national
destiny
NUMBER OF CHARACTERS: 2 (1 male, 1 female)
NUMBER OF ACTS: 7 scenes (Psychological Preparations,Five Questions,
and Synthesis. The view of the Inner Eye as interludes
PLACE: The Professor's poky little room at the university
TIME; The present
WRITTEN IN: 1982
SUMMARY:
A student Studena, prepares for her oral exam in Croatian Literature. The Professor has developed an entire strategy to seduce Studena, his questions are timed gradually but inexorably to break down her resistance,
so that he can achieve his desired synthesis, her body. However, Studena is not without ideas of hcr own, and she sets traps for the Professor.
Through a veil of lasciviousness, the drama of personal helplessness
in the face of national destiny becomes increasingly obvious The play was premiered in 1982 at Zagreb's Gavella Drama Theatre
BIOGRAPHY:
Born in Zagrcb in 1941, Ivan Bakmaz graduated from the Zagreb Faculty of Philosophy majoring in literature and psychology. He works as a scholar at the Old Slavic Institute. He has to his credit more than fifty drama texts in various genres. His work was been performed in the theatre, and on radio and TV He has also written several text for children's puppet plays.
ADDRESS:
Ivan Bakmaz, Siget 1.8A, 10020 Zagreb 'Phone: +385 1 652 7202