Битеф

24 th 09. / 17:00 / 65’ Bitef Theatre

Per. Art - Art and Inclusion Programme, Novi Sad, Serbia

EMPTY VOICE Concept: Saša Asentić Direcor: Saša Asentić i Olivera Kovačević Crnjanski Director's Assistant: Frosina Dimovska Performers: Natalija Vladisavljević, Goran Gostojić, Marijana Šugić, Snežana Bulatović, Dejan Šuljan, Marina Sremački, Marko Bašica, Vuk Vuković, Beata Perge, Bojana Stojanović, Mihailo Petrović and Dalibor Šandor, Dunja Crnjanski, Frosina Dimovska, Andrej Nenadov and Saša Asentić Stage Space and Costumes: Nataša MurgeSavić Lighting Design: Tihomir Boroja Sound Master: Dušan Jovanović Associates: Tatjana Tucić, Dunja Crnjanski and Andrej Nenadov Sound Associate; Predrag Petruševski Partners: Serbian National Theatre, ŠOSO “Milan Petrovic" and Erste Bank * Discussion with authors and performers after the performance

■ Empty Voice is a production in which mentally handicapped individuals speaking from their heart contribute to creating a public space broader than the one in which the prejudice about them sets in and persists. By telling their personal stories, reminiscences, through direct conversation, recitals of poetry, through intimate stories and statements about their disability, the performers present to the public themselves and their condition as a social construct, calling for indispensable consideration about the possibility of different social relations.

The production scenes are conceived so as to open a different level of communication between the performers and the audience through the words of mentally handicapped individuals in the first person, their conversations among themselves and with the audience. The spectators are thus confronted with their own stories, attitudes, prejudices and their own responsibility for the future of moments and relations of fundamental importance for all of us as social beings and their possible translation into life outside the theatre.

This performance presents neither disability nor talent as something exclusive - neither in the sense of exclusion and alienation, nor in the sense of patronizing and power. They speak of neither inability nor of virtuosity. “You have a beautiful feeling to be what you are”, says Natalija Vladisavljević, one of the performers, in her poems. That is what we promote in this performance, as well as inclusion and solidarity that make it all possible.®

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SIDE PROGRAMME / POLYPHONY

47 BITEF 13