Frida, Dragons and Sisyphus in the Hotel by Olga Vujović

OlgaEvery festival represents competition and socializing, comparison and affinity, and that is what we had at the Third International Festival of Professional Theatres for Children and Youth "Novi Sad Theater Festival", held from May 8 - 15, 2024, at the Youth Theatre in Novi Sad. The selector and director of the Festival was an actor and acting director of the Novi Sad Youth Theatre, Aleksandar Ćurčić, and the main selection, consisting of ten plays, was created (as usual) by a combination of the offered plays, the possibility of their performance at a given time and the personal taste of the selector (as Ćurčić writes, "the festival is a bond between different cultures and countries, different ideas, emotions and perspectives").

In the first two evenings, we saw "diary" performances: the dance-drama "The Diary of Anne Frank" directed by Renata Vidič and produced by the Koper Theatre (Slovenia) and "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole" by Sue Townsend directed by Tanja Mandić Rigonat and produced by the "Boško Buha" Theatre Belgrade (Serbia). Although set in different settings and environments, the plays talk about the troubles of teenagers: Anne lives with seven other people hidden in an uncomfortable small apartment and is in constant fear of being deported to a concentration camp due to the racial law on Jews, while Adrian lives with his parents, who argue while he is plagued by teenage problems such as unrequited love, pimples on his face and bullying. Although Anne's life is on the edge of existence, she falls in love, reads and studies like girls "out there", so Adrian's troubles, luckily much closer to today's children, have a stronger effect than Anne's. The play "Little Frida" by playwright Jelena Kovačić and director Anica Tomić, produced by the City Theatre "Žar ptica" Zagreb (Croatia), tells about the childhood of the famous Mexican painter Frida Kahlo and her struggle to be accepted as an equal by her peers, despite her lameness. "Complete, harmonious, exceptionally artistic, unobtrusively emotional and excellent in all its segments" the play "Little Frida" was unanimously awarded Grand prix as the best play as a whole, and the quote is part of the explanation of the jury consisting of Zdenka Lacina Pitlik (costume designer), Marija Radovanov (actress) and Sonja Petrović (director). Amanda Prenkaj was awarded the Best Actress award for her role of Little Frida because she managed to show "the spectrum of complex emotions and motivations of the character" and thus created "her own, authentic, free, playful little Frida", while the authors of "Little Frida" Jelena Kovačić and Anica Tomić received the Special Award for the idea and concept. The play "Velvet Revolution" by playwright Matej Sudarić and director Vanja Jovanović, produced by the Osijek Cultural Center (Croatia), dealt with growing up and coping in the "outside world", but even though it dealt with crucial problems in the lives of adolescents (17+), the comments of young critics showed ambiguities in the substantive approach. Based on Camus's essay "The Myth of Sisyphus", which deals with the absurdity of human life, the author and director Veselka Kuncheva created the monodrama "I, Sisyphus" produced by the Sofia Puppet Laboratory (Bulgaria) in which acting and puppets are combined (Special Award for Design and puppet technology for Marietta Golomehova) to tell the story of Sisyphus' futile efforts. Named after the medieval designation for an unknown, dangerous territory, the play "Hic sunt dracones" directed by Pavel Štaurač and produced by the theatre "Continuo" from Malovice (Czech Republic) explores the female body but also the position of man in the world, for which the ensemble received the Award for Animation Mastery, and Štaurač the Award for Best Director. It is an unusual play in which everyone is inclined to experiment at the level of material and movement; although not always everything is clear, it is certainly impressive and memorable. David Zuazola's multimedia project "City of Light" by the Kragujevac Children's and Youth Theatre (Serbia), made the audience nostalgic by the story of vedute and the history of Kragujevac, while the surreal story filled with magic tricks, acrobatics, strange characters and puppets in the play "Hotel“ by Lyubomir Zhelev (Special Award for versatile acting expression) in the production of the State Puppet Theatre of Stara Zagora (Bulgaria) did not relay any particular message, but it pretty much stunned everyone. The play that scared the children with its thunder, darkness and strange story was "Little Red Riding Hood" by Luana Gramegna, Teatro "Zaches" from Florence (Italy), and the play that should not have been in the competition or performed in the theatre building (since it would have been ideal as a street theatre) was "The Clown and His Children" by Zheni Pashova and Petar Pashov, produced by the "Atelier 313" Theatre from Sofia (Bulgaria).

There were excellent talks with the young audience, the presentation of two puppetry books by the author Livija Kroflin, the promotion of the Master's degree in puppetry at the Academy of Arts Novi Sad and the supporting programme offered a great performance of "Crime and Punishment" by F.M. Dostoevsky directed by Emilija Mrdaković and produced by the Youth Theatre Novi Sad (Serbia), but that is "a different story".

I am looking forward to the fourth Novi Sad Theater Festival.