DEDICATED THEATRE

Under the name Theatre Maska i Pokret, Iva and Petar created Neko je ubio pjesmu (Somebody has Killed the Play), a one-act play with masks. They wrote the screenplay, created the masks and all the visual elements, and were the protagonists of the play themselves. The production featured at the 22 MESS, a festival devoted to professional theatres presenting avant-garde tendencies and was acclaimed one of the most important events of the festival (one of the festival’s highlights). The production was awarded various theatre awards, e.g. a unique award from theatre critics, dramaturges and theatre scholars for the most thoughtful experiment on 22 MESS. This production represents one of their most important Works.

Already in that first play, the authors actually expressed their theatrical manifesto: belief in the poetic essence of theatre, in the challenge of its eternal mystery, not using the word but what is at the very core of the theatre’s origins – mask, music, movement.

SYNTHESIS OF MASKS, DANCE AND MUSIC

Realising Craig’s visionary dream of an actor-marionette, they took a step further in their studious work. Not reducing the mask to the character’s typical definition, they brought her into an organic relationship with the action. The synthesis of mask, movement and music in their play evolves into a system of theatrical signs and symbols through which dramaturgy, stories of good and evil, life and death, poetry and nothingness are accomplished. A simple, suggestive, and always thoughtfully chosen stage sign realises the poetic-thought core of their idea.

By consciously limiting and reducing the choice of theatrical means to mask, movement and music, the authors maximise their connotations of content and meaning, bringing these means into a series of combinations and organic coupling.

This play is in the true sense exploration, which does not limit its value, “unusualness”, freshness and meticulousness – on contrary speaks of a different, more modern reflection on theatre art.