This was such a lovely evening in theatre, at once a pleasure of seeing a living, breathing monument of Croatian theatre (this play is continuously showing for already 48 years and its officially in Guiness World Record as longest ever theatre play) and a joy of sharing this with my dear friends, something that because of my constant travels is extremely rare occasion.
"Exercises in Style" (Stilske vježbe in Croatian) has only two actors on a very simple stage - they both explain a very banal, everyday story in a variety of styles that are mind-boggling in virtuosity and its all done in a conversational style so it never gets boring, in fact we were all spellbound and constantly laughing and enjoying these, well, exercises in style. Same story was told as a monologue of a politician, mathematician, retired old man, spoiled city prima donna or a man-hating frustrated lady and it just went on like this for one hour until we were all in stitches. Sure, the original play by Queneau was probably slightly changed and adapted for our audiences because names of local streets and locations were used. Two actors who constantly play this from 1970 are Pero Kvrgić and Lela Margitić, both institutions of Croatian theatre. Younger of the two (Lela Margitić, 75) commanded more attention and occasionally corrected her 89 year old partner who was wonderful but we were simultaneously admiring his energy and wondering is he acting senile or is perhaps already there. The play lasted only an hour and that was just enough to shower them with warm applause and exit happy and satisfied. Again, what stays the most with me is the feeling of having a wonderful evening together with friends, something to remember and cherish most of all.
No comments:
Post a Comment