| ZINKA KISELJAK |
- Play for children and grown-ups -
TOPIC: rights of children during the war in Croatia
NUMBER OF CHARACTERS: 4 male and 4 female
NUMBER OF ACTS: 1
PLACE: a shelter and the boy's house before the war
TIME: the present
SUMMARY:
In the year that has been proclaimed the Year of the Rights of the Child by UNICEF, Zinka Kiseljak describes the rights of which children in Croatia have been deprived during the war.
A ten year old boy named Tvrtko loses his parents and other members of his family in the whirlwinds of the war. He only manages to save his family album. An elderly woman named Ruža finds him - utterly frightened and in the state of shock- in front of a formerdepartment store cold-storage plant, now turned into a shelter. During his stay in the shelter, Tvrtko does not utter a single word. Eventually, due to his warm memories and Ruža's love, Tvrtko sums up enough courage to come out of the shelter and face the destroyed world of his childhood.
The play was first produced at the Mala Scena Theatre in Zagreb in September 1994.
- Farce -
TOPIC: manipulation
NUMBER OF CHARACTERS: 2 male and 4 female
NUMBER OF ACTS: 2 plus an Epilogue
PLACE: a forest
TIME: undetermined
SUMMARY:
This farce is based upon Shakespeare's "Macbeth". Nineteen years after the siege of Dunsinane we find Lady Macbeth now old and half-deaf in the service of the three witches. Namely the tragic queen did not die during the siege (in spite of the common belief). The witches saved her in order to realise their prophecy and make Banquo the Father of the Kings. In the perpetual quibbling with the Great Magus, they make a wager and the witches are forced to finish off what they started nineteen years ago... This is the starting point for a game of wits between the male and female principle, manipulation even a falsification of history. Lady Macbeth is once again only a tool in the witches' hands. Will the prophecy be fulfilled?
The play was first broadcast on Croatian Radio in October 1994.
BIOGRAPHY:
Zinka Kiseljak was born in Zagreb, 1968. She is a senior student of dramaturgy at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb. She works for several theatres as an associate dramatist, and for the children's program on the Croatian Television. She also writes for radio. She is a member of the editorial staff of the "Plima" literary magazine.
ADDRESS:
Zinka Kiseljak, Medvedgradska 34, 41000 Zagreb 'Phone/fax: 277-737