Битеф

The Storm directed by Jernej Lorenci and adapted for the stage by Eva Mahkovic reveals to us, in an adaptation carefully analysed to the last detail, a somewhat forgotten Ostrovsky’s text, written more than a hundred and fifty years ago. Lorenci critically approaches the old and all-time social hypocrisy of well-rehearsed indulgence of a narrow group of the small-time wealthy and the ever topical apathy of small communities to show that a failed life is made of a combination of football and the Sunday service on TV - and the cynical view that love is materialised only as a quick consumption of sex. Lorenci is also a master of many layers of social love of ceremony. After every abomination uttered, the actors move to the forefront and make a slow bow. The awareness of permanent display and ever-lasting exposure to the eyes of others creates a specific, bitter and painful alliance with the audience and it becomes clear suddenly that the most warm-hearted and the most naive will pay the price of a system of all-enveloping coldness. Nataša Govedić, Novi list

1} All events on the rural bank of the Russian Volga River are controlled by rich old folk, the self-proclaimed guardians of the tradition and violent persecutors of everything that deviates from the traditional moral principles and norms of conduct. Slavko Prezdir, Delo

If From the not too long five-act piece the director excluded all situations except the final tragedy: Katerina's suicide. The text always uses the functional, leaving out the explanations, and leaving in the performative sentences. The realistic framework is ignored generously and systematically. The actors, deliberately, would-be realistically, overdressed (costume design by Belinda Radulović), make an almost epic, Brechtian appearance. They marvel at the dark characters they agreed to portray and the whole action is driven on by a chamber orchestra which also represents the wannabe addition to the life of the rural rich. (...) The production is thus slightly weird, deliberately and fluidly, but offers great opportunity for play. Namely, the actors are out in the open, secured by music and ever-new pace, so they can play at will. They also address the audience directly. Needless to say, the production speaks also about our present-day tycoons who are just as cruel and in fact, everything is the same. Tomislav Čadež, Jutarnji list

121

47 BITEF 13

HARD TO BE