Feral Tribune Cabaret
Hasija Borić was born in 1953 in Jajce (BiH), has
studied in London and Wroclaw (at the Grotowski Institute) and worked in
several Croatian and Bosnian theatres. After the war she returned to Sarajevo
despite her very successful collaboration with the Volkstheater in Vienna,
where she still makes guest appearances in Bernhard's Wittgenstein's Nephew.
Her decision was based on a strong desire to actively participate in the
transition from the old Balkan slaughterhouse to a young capitalist society.
Boric returned to the National Theatre and started acting out an old wish of
hers at the same time: that is creating The Hasija Borić Travelling Theatre
(2002). The power of her cabaret is distinctively double: it puts political
practises on stage, but not just any stage. The Travelling Theatre bearing the
performer's first and last name is among other things a consequence of the
well-known and rigid practice of many repetory theatres or large steady casts.
In these situations a 'middle-aged' actress will inevitably fall into some kind
of an empty space. If she doesn't 'leave' her 'home-theatre' and start working
on her own projects, she can literally stay at home, where even playwrights
think she belongs, because there are almost no middle-aged women's roles in
theatrical texts. But Boric is committed to her profession, her willpower is a
tremendous force, challenging the 'regulated' art world, and producing her own
creations: stunning fusions of cabaret, Bertolt Brecht, Samuel Beckett, and
Monty Python.
Accompanied by one musician, Hasija Boric tackles the slippery terrain with
great skill, a terrain over which more ink than blood has been shed, and still
we don't know enough - the Bosnian killings, the political collapse and all
kinds of fascist movements from 1992-1996 up to today. Within the show of just
over an hour, which is based on the hyper-satirical texture of the Split-based
magazine, Feral Tribune, which saw its beginnings as a feuilleton of Slobodna
Dalmacija, Boric transforms herself into over 30 characters, and all the
time dances on the blade-sharp border-line between political cabaret, which
provokes a hysterical laugh at most, a bitter lump, dull tears, obscure cold
and corrosive silence. Feral, which for the actress stands for the
unquestionable 'intellectual and moral life' races through its silky
dramaturgic stampede, settles between the 'former' and 'now', but above all it
evokes the disappointed, robbed and wounded population deeply, and without
being emotional. The deformed creatures of political old times are immanent to
all present-day fascists; national zeal and killer blindness find their place
in the present-day audience-member sitting next to you. There is no way out of
the performance; every comment has no choice but to be political. Moreover, the
mere presence of The Hasija Boric Travelling Theatre in Ljubljana translates
into inexorable critique of our environment, which enjoys lamenting the 'hard
times' so much, yet has not one political cabaret worthy of its mission.
Miha Zadnikar
Adapted from texts by the editors of Feral Tribune: Viktor
Ivancic, Predrag Lucic in Boris Dezulovic.
("Dear to God, and not unpleasant to the Devil.")
Text selection and interpretation: Hasija Borić
Directed by: Tanja Miletic Orucević
Music: Ibrahim Alibegović
Scenography: Osman Arslanagić
Costume design: Amela Vilić
Choreography: Selma Imširević
Graphic design: Amir Berbić
The song "Kad naredi general" taken from Vox newspaper.
The cabaret was premiered at Sarajevo Winter Festival in
February 2004 (Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina).
Organisation: City of Women
In co-operation with: Mestno gledalisce ljubljansko (MGL)
