JULIUS CAESAR
- A Drama -
TOPIC: hypocrisy and political turncoating
NUMBER OF CHARACTERS: 12 male and 3 female
NUMBER OF SCENES: 10
PLACE: a theatre
TIME: the first multiparty elections in Croatia, 1990
SUMMARY:
Rehearsals of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" are under way in a Croatian theatre on the eve of the first multiparty elections (1990). At the same time, political confrontations arise between the actors and the theatre administrative staff. These confrontations correspond to those in Shakespeare's play.
The theatre manager, Josip Gajski (who plays Julius Caesar), is an exregime
man who struggles to maintain his position byjoining the winning party. A group of actors who are acquainted with his murky past contrive a plot against him. Unfortunately, Gajski has a coronary and dies onstage
during the rehearsal of Caesar's assassination in the Senate. The actorwho plays Marc Anthony unjustly accuses the leading actor Gruber (who plays Brutus) for Gajski's death. Gruber suffers a nervous breakdown,
starts drinking, and ends up in hospital where he dies, despised by all. Representatives of the newly established government, who caused his death in the first place by imputing guilt to him in order to evade their own responsibility, organise the grand commemoration in his honour.
PERFORMANCE OF "HAMLET" IN THE VILLAGE OF MRDUŠA DONJA
- Tragi-grotesque -
TOPIC: hypocrisy and knavery wrapped in political phrases
NUMBER OF CHARACTERS: 6 male, 2 female, villagers (3)
NUMBER OF ACTS: 5
PLACE: the National Front offices
TIME: post-World War II
SUMMARY:
The revival of cultural activities is discussed at the National Front meetinin the village of Mrduša Donja, during which one of the villagers named Simura relates how he had watched the performance of "Hamlet" at a Zagreb theatre. The village VIP named Bukara, who acts as both the local communist party secretary and as the director of the village farm cooperative, ordersthe teacherto stage "Hamlet", engaging the villagers as amateur actors. The teacher resists the idea at first, but after being politically blackmailed he begins with rehearsals. However, instead of Shakespeare's verses (which turn out to be too complicated for the villagers) decasyllabic lines, interjections and the current political phraseology
echo from the stage. The rehearsed scenes correspond to
events and relations among the protagonists in real life. Bukara (who plays Claudio) falsely accuses and sends to prison the father of young Škoko (who plays Hamlet). Two Hamlets the one from Denmark and the onefrom Mrduša, mergetothe pointthatthedilemma oftheformersoon develops into the reality of the latter. The only difference is that, in Mrduša, Hamlet takes no revenge, there are neither guilty parties nor a Fortinbras. It all ends in utter darkness from which only the teacher's cry is heard: "Turn on the light!"
The play was first produced at the ITD Theatre in Zagreb in 1971 . Ivo Brešan has won several prizes with this political grotesque. Translated into several languages (German, English, Swedish, Danish, Polish and Russian).
THE NIHILIST FROM VELA MLAKA
- A Comedy -
NUMBER OF CHARACTERS: 17 ( 1 1 male and 6 female)
NUMBER OF ACTS: 5
PLACE: The courtyard of a rich household.
TIME: The present
WRITTEN IN: 1996
SUMMARY:
The action takes place in the present in a small place in Dalmatia among the large Zulim family. They had once been wealthy but had lost everything with the nationalisation which followed World War II. Now, with the promise of denationalisation, plans are being made within the family to sell off the property, because their deceased father and grandfather had died without making a will. The family black sheep is Miki Zulim, who had once been a communist, a great admirer of the Soviets, whose father had been a victim in the Goli Otok detention camp. He is now a very disappointed man, all his ideals have been destroyed, and the new spirit of the times is so foreign to him that he hates everyone and everything, and believes in nothing. He has even gone so far as to brick up all the doors in his part of the house so as to avoid any contact with the other members of the family, who had all renounced his father when he needed them. Miki enters and leaves his apartment through the window by means of a ladder. Miki is only his nickname, his real name being Mikoyan. The plot thickens when a will is finally found to exist, by which Mikoyan-Miki inherits everything. A series of uproarious comedy scenes follow in which the others try to get their hands on the inheritance, while Miki makes fools of them, playing on their greed. He finally realises that his hatred and need for revenge make him just as bad as they are. He decides to disappear leaving an unidentified corpse to be buried under his name. Miki simply departs for destinations unknown. But he leaves his riches to Sandra, a little girl who was the only one who truly cared for him.
The play's premiere is planned for the 1997/98 theatre seasoa at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb.
THE CREEP
- A Slapstick-Comedy -
THEME: Elections in a small coastal town
NUMBER OF CHARACTERS: 15 (11 male, 4 female)
NUMBER OF ACTS: 9
PLACE: The square in a small coastal town
TIME: The present
WRITTEN IN: 1997
SUMMARY:
The central character has no character; he is a louse who is prepared to
trample on his own human dignity for his own personal gain. In the former regime, he was a police informer letting them know everything he overheard, and being paid in return. Many people suffered because of his activities. That is why his fellow citizens call him the Creep. With the change in government and the putting into place of the new system,
he again offers his services to the powers-that-be. As it is just before election time, he proposes to the mayor that he be hired as a secret associate,
promising to bring down the coalition of opposition parties. He is hired because the mayor is uncertain about how the election is going to turn our for him personally. He ignores his wife's objections saying the "everything is allowed in politics". At the same time we follow the love story of two mentally retarded young people: the mayor's daughter and the son of a policeman in the former regime. They live in their own
world, ignoring everyone else, although their parents try to prevent them seeing each other, sometimes even by force. With his various schemes, the Creep manages to bring down the coalition. And finally, when the ruling party wins the elections, the mayor's replacement is
the Creep. There is general consternation, and the only happy people
are the two mentally handicapped young people, whom the Creep manipulates
to his own ends, but makes their marriage possible.
This comedy has been translated into Slovakian and is included in the
Zagreb City Comedy Theatre's repertoire for 1998.
ICY SEED
- a drama -
THEME: Historical with elements of the fantastic
NUMBER OF CHARACTERS: 17 (14 male, 3 female)
NUMBER OF ACTS: 8 scenes
PLACE: The premises of the Zagreb City Hall
TIME: The mid-18th century
WRITTEN IN: 1992
SUMMARY:
Women were still being burnt as witches in Zagreb at the middle of the 18th century. Krčelić, a young lawyer, secretary to the Grand Prefect, has been raised on the works of the French encyclopaedists, and fiercely opposes the practice. Lead by the ideas of the Enlightenment, his opposition
penetrates to the court of the Empress Maria Theresa. For a while, it seems that Krčelić has been successful. The Empress issues her famous decree suspending the trials of witches, placing them instead under her control. She sends her personal physician, De Haen, to Croatia to look into the matter on the spot, and he takes Krcelic with him as his escort and personal secretary.
At first, De Haen's mission seems to be enlightened; he quashes supesstitious
practices, ends the trials of the purported witches and sets free from incarceration the innocent women. But as time passes, everyone who had been a protagonist of the trials meets a mysterious and violent death, included the "witches" themselves. Finally, Krčelić realise what a terrible mistake he has made. When De Hacn offers him the position of Grand Prefect, asking at the same time that he signs a contract with him in his own blood, Krčelić finally understand that Satan does exist, and that De Haen himself is Satan. Realising that in exorcising an imaginery Devil he has produced the real one, Krčelić chooses death rather than sign the contract.
BIOGRAPHY:
Ivo Brešan was born in Vodice in 1936. He studied at the Faculty of Philosophy
in Zagreb. From 1960 until 1983 he worked as a graduate teacher at the Sibenik Grammar School. Since 1983, he has been the art director of the Šibenik Theatre and the Šibenik Intemationational Children's Festival. Brešan is one of Croatia's most performed contemporary playwrights;
he often writes in the Šibenik dialect. He has written several very succesful movies scenarios.
ADDRESS:
Ivo Brešan, Bana Mažuranića 5/VIII, 22000 Šibenik 'Phone: +385 22 23 284