The ticket for this celebrated theatre play was part of my Christmas present and thank to a generous friend I started this year with a very interesting performance and something that is actually homegrown. Authoress Tena Štivičić and me share the same hometown and horoscope sign, however apparently she successfully studied dramaturgy and got her plays performed internationally - this particular play won New York's Susan Smith Blackburn award and was originally staged in London's Royal National Theatre so the audiences interest was definitely great and there was a lots of excited buzz around Croatian National Theatre last night.
"Three winters" happens in the same house in three different decades - 1945, 1990 and 2011 - and follows its inhabitants as they struggled with adopting to huge changes around them. Young couple in 1945 are partisans with a baby who somehow got the keys for the empty house from the government, as the previous (politically compromised) owners emigrated to Argentina and they feel intimidated with huge, luxurious space. The family in 1990 refuses to accept the facts about possibility of civil war and upcoming fall of Yugoslavia, even though ex-patriots who live and work in foreign countries know this for a long time (this is interesting to note as it really happened and we - who were right in the middle of it all - could hardly believe as possibility). Just as independent Croatia finally gets open door to EU in 2011 the very same family now faces moral dilemma as well-heeled new groom forcefully removes all the other neighbours in order to officially buy the whole house. Across the decades and generations there is also a very strong (and eccentric) presence of house real owner's daughter Karolina who was somehow left to live in here and who represents previous bourgeois society.
It was very interesting story and audience responded with laughter all the way trough as we could recognise ourselves in all of this - sometimes it wasn't pleasant because it felt like someone brought mirror perhaps just a little too close to our noses (we all know character like obnoxious, bragging Švabo) but in reality yes, this is how Croatian families talk, argue and laugh around the kitchen table. I am still not 100% sure about all that continuous cursing & swearing but my friends claim this is how people talk informally (I might be little too old fashioned, expecting theatre to be temple of art) - I simply don't find swearing neither funny nor entertaining but people around me roared with laughter so good for them. Occasionally I wondered am I going deaf as I couldn't hear half of it (and our seats were fairly close to the stage) specially when actors were not facing the audience. However, the biggest thrill was actress Nina Violić as Karolina who in my opinion absolutely stole the show - everybody had good lines but she relished hers, she wallowed in hers like in some beautiful silky satin sheets and I felt as I could hug her. There was also a surprisingly strong turn by completely supporting character (forcefully evicted neighbour) played by Mislav Čavajda who basically has only one scene but he is unforgettable in it, I found this a sign of really great acting when in such ensemble play one supporting actor stands out so memorably. As a strong-willed, scheming young bride Luca Anić also had a great moment in the spotlight, although the character repels me. It was a very solid cast enjoying surprisingly strong script, though some of the names I found maybe just a little bit overrated. Violić, Čavajda and Anić were excellent.
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