KAZALIŠNA PREDSTAVA-

odiseja 2001-odiseya 2001

-STAGE PERFORMANCE
contact: Kazališna radionica "Gustl" Damir Šaban Hreljinska 2; 10000 Zagreb- Croatia/Hrvatska; mob:++385(98)-357 003; tel/fax:01/363 00 73
E-mail:DAMIR ŠABAN

PRESS--ACTORS--MUSIC--VIDEO--PHOTO

About the performance ODYSSEY 2001: ______ Homer / K.R. Gustl: Odiseja 2001 - GROTESQUE anthropologic labORATORY Production: K.R. Gustl Co-production: Primorski poletni festival, Slovenia Patronage: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia Artistic Director and Set Designer: Damir Šaban Dramaturgy: Uršula Lipovec Čebron (SLO) Movement: Rosana Hribar (SLO) Video: Kristina Horvat Blaľinović Costumes: Bianka Adžić-Ursulov (SLO) Original Music: Antun Toni Blaľinović Sculptural Works: Miljenko Sekulić Secret Advisors: Ksenija Ugrina / Branko Supek Performers: Edita Majić, Kristijan Ugrina, Toni Blaľinović, Damir ©aban Light Design: Damir Kruhak Sound Design: Bruno Fretze ***

Scenes in the performance: o Storm o Phaeacians o Lotus eaters o Circe o Syrenes o Hades-Land of Deads o Return

The idea of the performance: In Odyssey 2001 K.R. Gustl takes Homer's poem back to the future: to the post-democratic surroundings, where, in the groups of "contemporary nomads", the history of Odysseus re-finds its audience. Homer's text appears as a kind of "padalica" from an impalpable past, which makes the players on the stage hope that they can step out of the dry reality and get drawned in the motifs of ancientGreek landscapes. The show is, according to Homer's text, itinerary-like. Itinerary is no longer just the matter of political and historical topography, but represents climbing down into the labyrinths of Odysseus's subconscience, which simultaneously marks climbing down into the archetypes of "European collective subconscience". There opens the space in which past and present, imaginary and real, grow together into a thick texture. Odyssey 2001 does not tend to pass all Odysseus's journeys, does not want to be a lecture on ancient Greek classics. Most of all it searches for a painless connection of Homer's and contemporary world. On one side, it tries to rehabilitate the elements of ancient Greek theatre: the verse, chorus, protagonists and antagonists... On the other side, there are constant elements of contemporary dance, ethnic music and topicality. Performes on the stage move from one character into another, building different worlds. The stage is transitory space through different times, spaces and traditions, combined in different ways and visited by Odysseus. In this context, he is no longer the sly, invincible hero, but more of his opposite: exhausted, doubting anti-hero, carrying the load of European history: tired of wars and condemned to neurotic wandering, not knowing where he is heading and who is he looking for. There is only one line which remains constant throughout his journey - female line. We see him sailing, meeting and leaving different women: green, red, white. And in all of them he always finds only one woman. All are in her. And that woman, found... isn't she only a dream of the nostalgic traveler? Urąula Lipovec Čebron

Eshiles said he took everything from Homer; we are daring to search for the theatrical way from the epic to the theatre. Damir Saban *** About the authors of the performance:

o Damir Šaban (director, producer and actor in "Odiseja 2001") graduated acting at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb, 1980. Member of theatre group Akter, Treąnja theatre, Subotica th., since 1989 member of ZeKaeM Theatre, in which he produced Gustlsalon - a cabaret based on the texts of A.G.Matoą, performed more than 250 times and Maraton. Performs in productions on the repertoire of ZeKaeM Theatre and leads his own group - K.R.Gustl. Played Werther, Aljosa, ..Cechov, Shakespeare...Played in numerous TV plays and series. o Ursula Lipovec Čebron (dramaturg and first assistant) graduated in Cultural studies in the Faculty of social sciences in Ljubljana. She continuated her studies as a post-graduated student in the department of Ethnolology and cultural anthropology, where is also employed as an assistant-professor in Cultural anthropology. Since 1991 is involved in different 'roles' concerning theatre: as a theatre critic, as a selector of Primorski poletni festival / Festival estivo del litorale she works since 2001 and as a dramaturg.

o Rosana Hribar (coreograpgher) Slovenian dancer and coreographer of the young generation. She danced in important slovenian and foreign dance-groups and worked as coraeographer with well-known directors (Damir Zlatar Fray, Vito Taufer ecc.). She won many prizes as dancer and coreographer.

o Kristina Horvat Blazinovic (video artist) received her degree in painting from the Academy of Visual Art in Ljubljana. In addition to painting, she also makes videos and animated films. She currently teaches in the Department of Visual Art and Design at the Arhitectural School and at the Teachers´ University in Cakovec. In year 2001. she registered on Master´s degree study in video and new media at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana.

o Antun Toni Blazinovic (composer and performer in the "Odiseja 2001") Toni's music has gone through several transformations since he started his band 'Only Bass and Drum' and can now be described as ethno drum&bass composer. To date, he has won two Porin music awards --in the categories of theater and film music in Croatia. His composition 'Elements'has been selected by the American Composers Forum as one of nine best electronic music pieces for the year 2000.

o Edita Majić (actress) graduated at Academy for Drama Arts in Zagreb, member of Gavella Theatre in Zagreb, played Wild, Pirandello, Goldoni, Koltes, Brueckner, Krleľa, Sofocles... won several prizes (for example Croatian's prize for film-actors Golden Arena), the last one for acting in «Odiseja 2001» at Festival of Actors in Croatia.

o Kristijan Ugrina (actor) graduated at Academy for Drama Arts in Zagreb, since 1997. he is employed as actor in ZeKaeM-theatre. He played in many croatian films, for many years he conducts TV-show for children.

o Bjanka Ursulov (costume designer) academic painter and designer, lives in Ljubljana, Slovenija. She worked in Croatia, Italy, Germany, France, England and Austria and realized 150 designs, among other prizes she won the most important Slovenian prize (Preąern's prize) and was named by the German Theater heute to be one of 10 best costume designers in Germany.

PRESS

PRESS--ACTORS--MUSIC--VIDEO--PHOTO

** *
ODYSSEY 2001 - PRESS REVIEWS «...The viewer of Odyssey 2001 is held to the chair, trying not to miss a slightest bit of the apocalyptic show from ©aban's laboratory. Connecting seemingly incompatible, recycling, both in terms of the set and the story, all the existing canons, GUSTL mocks both the theatre and the world, ironizing Odysseus presented as an exhausted warrior on the journey between the war and the home. Dramaturge Urąula Lipovec Čebron concentrated only on three episodes from the adventures of the tired warrior, and with a lot of imagination fitted into the show excellent video projections, visually sophisticated dreamlike images of his psychodelic subconsciousness (author of the video - Kristina Horvat Blaľinović). A kind of theatrical Rashomon is fragmented by ethnic music, inspired by melodies from Kvarner, composed by Antun Toni Blaľinović, who also plays the electric guitar. Odyssey 2001, enriched also by natural and witty performance of Kristijan Ugrina, abounded with well interpolated and prononunced hexameters. They hit exactly the right spots in contemporary viewer, intriguiging him without putting a strain on him. Odyssey 2001, shown in a futurist surroundings with a lot of post-modern interpretations is a witty show with balanced rhythm.» BETWEEN WAR AND HOME, Helena Braut, Vjesnik, Zagreb October 22, 2001
«...The subtitle of the project - grotesque anthropological laboratory - hints at the intention of staging Homer's epic as a journey through the fragments of postmodernist iconography, as a journey through the chips of reality, without a palpable beginning or the end, in which Homer's bestiary is embodied as a "collective image of subconsciousness". The places at which Odysseus stops are marked by the presence of women. They are not only the women he meets and soon leaves, but the choice of those episodes of Homer's epic pronounces the mythological circle of four changes of moon, four aspects of female principle trailing through the whole Greek mythology. Very simple costumes (Bianka Adľić-Ursulov) occasionally turn glittering; efficient scenic movement (Rosana Hribar) and witty set design make it possible for the performers to intervene freely into the space with their presence, voice or singing.» OPTIMISTIC AND OCCASIONALLY WITTY, Lidija Zozoli, Slobodna Dalmacija, Split, October 22, 2001
«...In a very ingenious set, making out of metal barrels everything you need (including the vessels of tired voyagers to be torn apart by raging winds), at first sight everything seems playful, and the actors, except ©aban, do not avoid witty, but not exaggerated caricatures. Still, a kind of painful longing imbuing the show and ©aban's interpretation of the exhausted Odysseus offers to the viewer another dimension - the one of the eternal, human search for sanctuary, a safe port as a refuge for tired horsemen. Together with the video-projections made by Kristina Horvat Blaľinović, using the scenes from contemporary and mythical human landscapes, very strong effect to our senses has the music of Toni Blaľinović - impressive combination of electronic music, ethnic elements and vocal scores from Istria to Slavonia and Herzegovina, which reconciles past and present, spaces and traditions Odysseus passed through in his search for the One.» IN SEARCH OF THE SANCTUARY or REFUGE FOR TIRED HORSEMEN, Gordana Ostović, Vijenac, November 15, 2001
«...The journey of the hero and his return to his native Itaka is a symbolic journey into his inner self, an attempt to transpose the mythical images through the centuries and show them as archetypal patterns of human behaviour. At moments we witness a comedy, then a tragicomedy, then tragedy, and all those phases are intervowen with an edge of grotesque, so that the laughter from the audience to "deadly serious situations" is by no means accidental or a caricature.» THE MAN HAS REMAINED THE SAME SINCE HOMER'S AGE, Goran Bujić, Zadarski list, Zadar, August 2, 2001
«...The show is simultaneously ironic towards Homer's epic and towards the contemporary Odysseus in search for the Woman.» HOMER IN CONTEMPORARY SURROUNDINGS, ®elimir Ciglar, Večernji list, Zagreb, October 23, 2001
«...Odyssey 2001 uses the expressions of contemporary multimedia performance, in order to, on the basis of universal tradition and personal experience of the protagonists, speak in simple and witty terms about interlacing of the individual and the social, the past and the present, the order and the chaos.» TRADITION AND CONTEMPORARY, Slavko Pezdir, Delo, Ljubljana, Slovenija, July 21, 2001
IZVACI IZ KRITIKA »gledatelja Odiseja čvrsto drži za stolac, ne dopuštajući da mu ni u jednom trenutku promakne dijelić toga apokaliptičnog showa iz Šabanova laboratorija kazališne radionice »Gustl«. Spojivši na izgled nespojivo, reciklirajući, i scenografski i fabularno sve postojeće kanone, «Gustl« se simpatično narugao i kazalištu i svijetu, ironizirajući i Odiseja kojeg je Damir Šaban pogođeno predočio kao umornog bojevnika na putovanju između rata i doma. Dramaturginja Uršula Lipovec Čebron fokusirala se samo na tri epizode iz podogačkih dogodovština umornog ratnika, i s mnogo maštovitosti uklopila je izvrsne i aktualne video projekcije, efektne i vizualno sofisticirane oniričke slike njegove psihodelične podsvijesti (autorica Kristina Horvat-Blažinović). Svojevrstan scenski rašomon fragmentiran je etno glazbom Antuna Tonija Blažinovića, nadahnutu melodijskim izričajima s Kvarnera, -pleše se i »krčki tanac«, skladatelj svira i električnu gitaru. »Odiseji 2001.«, koju je svojom prirodnošću glume s duhovitim naznakama razigrao i Kristijan Ugrina, nije nedostajalo pregršt dobro uvrštenih i izgovorenih heksametara. Oni poput šiljka pogađaju na prava mjesta modernog gledatelja, intrigirajući ga, no bez opterećivanja. »Odiseja 2001.« prikazana u futurističkom okolišu, s mnogo »post-postmodernog iščitavanja« je zabavno ostvarenje ujednačenog tempa«. IZMEĐU RATA I DOMA, Helena Braut, VJESNIK, Zagreb, 22. listopada 2001.
»podnaslov projekta - »groteskni antropološki laboratorij« - upozorava na namjeru da se Homerov ep uprizori kao putovanje kroz ulomke postmodernističke ikonografije, kao put kroz krhotine stvarnosti u kojima nema opipljivog početka i kraja i u kojima se Homerov bestijarij opredmećuje kao »kolektivna slika podsvijesti«. Mjesta na kojima se Odisej zaustavlja obilježena su prisutnošću žena. Nausikaja, Kirka, Antikleja, Penelopa (Edita Majić) nisu samo žene koje susreće i nedugo nakon toga ostavlja, već biranje upravo tih epizoda Homerova spjeva izriče i mitološki krug četiriju mjesečevih mjena, četiriju aspekata ženskog principa koji se provlači kroz čitavu grčku mitologiju. Vrlo jednostavni kostimi (Bjanka Adžić-Ursulov) koji tek povremeno zalaze u blještavilo, te veoma dobra riješenja scenskog pokreta (Rosana Hribar) i duhovita scenografija, omogućuju izvođačima da slobodno interveniraju u prostor svojom prisutnošću, glasom ili pjevanjem.« OPTIMISTIČNO I POVREMENO DUHOVITO, Lidija Zozoli, SLOBODNA DALMACIJA, Split, 22. listopdada 2001.
»U vrlo domišljatoj scenografiji koja od metalnih bačvi stvara sve što je potrebno, pa i lađe umornih putnika što će jih raznijeti bjesni vjetrovi, na prvi pogled sve djeluje zaigrano a glumci, osim Šabana, ne bježe od duhovitih ali ne pretjeranih karikatura, no neka bolna čežnja koja prožima predstavu i Šabanovu interpretaciju umornog Odiseja gledatelju nudi i drugu dimenziju - onu vječne, općeljudske potrage za utočiščem, sigurnom lokom kao odmorištem za umorne jahače« Uz videoprojekcije Kristine Horvat-Blažinović, koje koriste scene iz suvremenih i mitskih ljudskih krajolika (primjerice prizori marširanja specijalne policije i sjene u Hadu) na čula je snažno djelovala i glazba Tonija Blažinovića - dojmljiv spoj elektronske glazbe te etno elemenata i vokaliza od Istre do Slavonije i Hercegovine, pomirujući prošlost i sadašnjost, prostore i tradicije kojima je u potrazi za Jednom plovio potukač Odisej.« U POTRAZI ZA UTOČIŠTEM ILI ODMORIŠTE ZA UMORNE JAHAČE, Gordana Ostović, VIJENAC, 15. studenog 2001.
»Junakovo putovanje i povratak na rodnu Itaku... simbolično je putovanje u unutrašnjost vlastitog bića, pokušaj da se ove mitske sličice transponiraju kroz vijekove i pokažu zorno i bez ustezanja kako arhetipski obrasci ljudskog ponašanja eonima ostaju isti. Na trenutak svjedočimo komediji, potom stavljamo pamet na tragikomediju, pa tragediju, a sve te faze protkane su obrubom od groteske, pa ni smijeh iz gledališta na »smrtno ozbiljne situacije« nije nipošto slučajan niti karikaturalan.« ČOVJEK JE ISTI JOŠ OD HOMEROVA DOBA, Goran Bujić, ZADARSKI LIST,Zadar, 2. kolovoza 2001.
»Predstava je podjednako ironična prema Homerovu epu kao i prema suvremenom Odiseju koji je u potrazi za pravom Ženom.« HOMER U SUVREMENOM OKOLIŠU, Želimir Ciglar, VEČERNJI LIST, Zagreb, 23.listopada 2001.
»Odiseja 2001. koristi izraze suvremenog multimedijskog performansa, da bi na osnovi univerzalne tradicije i osobnih iskustava protagonista progovorila jednostavno i duhovito o isprepletenosti individualnog i društvenog, prošlosti i sadašnjosti, reda i kaosa.« TRADICIJA I SUVREMENIK, Slavko Pezdir, DELO, Ljubljana, Slovenija, 21. srpanj, 2001.
»Zadarska publika dobro je primila ovu predstavu... time je naznačeno kako su na dobrom putu, da nasljede uspjeh »Gustlsalona«, najpoznatije predstave ove kazališne radionice, koja je s »Gustlsalonom« obišla ne samo čitavu Hrvatsku već i Europu«. GROTESKNI ORATORIJ, Goran Bujić, ZADARSKI LIST, Zadar