IVANOV

Anton. P. Chekhov

Croatiian National Theatre, Zagreb

Director: Eimuntas Nekrošius

Performed in Croatian with Hungarian subtitles.

3 hours 30 minutes with 1 breaks.

Ivanov, a new CNT (Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb) production is directed by a great theatre master, Eimuntas Nekrošius,who has staged a famous play by A.P. Chekhov in the national theatre daringly and openly different than the traditional staging of russian playwrite.

The stage is almost empty except a small square auditorium of chairs (as many as the characters in the play), slightly inclinated and facing the public with two stylized curtain holder in a back stage and one white swing. His staging is refined nad meticulous, with a appropriate music background. Director's Ivanov is a surplus man of future. Nekrošius slowly builds dramatic and comic situations during the performance by creating love triangels. Ivanov's relation towards his wife is confronted to the enthusiasm of young Sasha.Throughout the whole perfomance Nekrošius sees Ivanov as a man who is Hamlet against his will, Tartuffe, a hypocrite and Oblomov without any energy and Byron's Manfred.

But, director's vision of a play is not caged in a past. In the scene of drinking at the Ivanov's room one can recognize bits and pieces of today european socio-political context. This performance is demanding on both sides: for the actors on the stage as well as for the audience, who is approched directly in some moments, opening a new perspective on a play, thus making our reception of Chekhov fresh and intriguing.

Actors

IVANOV: Bojan Navojec
ANA PETROVNA: Lana Barić
MATHEW SEMYONICH SHABESLKI: Dragan Despot
PAUL KIRILICH LEBEDEV: Goran Grgić
ZINAIDA SAVISHNA: Alma Prica
SASHA: Luca Anić
LVOV: Luka Dragić
MARFA YEGOROVNA BABAKINA: Nina Violić
DMITRY NIKITICH KOSYKH: Slavko Juraga
MIKHAIL MIHAYLOVICH BORKIN: Dušan Bućan
AVDOTYA: Ksenija Marinković
GUESTS: Jadranka Đokić, Ivana Bićan
PASSENGER: Franjo Kuhar
GUEST: Silvio Vovk
GAVRILA: Ivan Glowatzky

Prompter: Višnja Kiš
Stage manager: Roko Grbin
Stage manager: Roko Grbin
Consecutive translator: Elina ŠULENTA
Assistent costume designer: Antonija JAKŠIĆ DOROTIĆ
Assistent set designer: Ante SERDAR
Assistent dramaturg: Mirna RUSTEMOVIĆ
Text translation: Borislav MRKŠIĆ
Sound designer and assistent director: Taursa ČIŽAŠ
Costume designer: Nadežda GULTIAJEVA
Set and light designer: Marius NEKROŠIUS

Director

Eimuntas Nekrošius

Gobbi Hilda Stage

Eimuntas Nekrošius

Eimuntas Nekrošius is one of the most significant contemporary Lithuanian directors and also the founder and artistic director of the Meno Fortas theatre company. He was born in 1952 in a small Lithuanian village. As a child, he lived on a farmstead with his family. At 18 years of age, he was admitted to the Vilnius State Conservatory. One year after having completed his studies, he was admitted to the Lunacharsky Institute of Theatre Arts (today the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts), where he studied directing under Andrei Goncharov. His first position as a director was with the Kaunas Drama Theatre, and he later worked at the Vilnius State Youth Theatre. Gradually, he developed a distinctive and highly metaphorical approach to the language of the theatre, which was later to become the hallmark of some of his most important productions based on the works of Chekhov and Shakespeare. One year after his 1997 production of Hamlet, which was arguably epoch-making, he founded the Meno Fortas (Fortress of Art) company, which became a member of the Union of the Theatres of Europe. Nekrošius has been won numerous awards for his work. His play Othello won the Golden Mask Award in the category of Best Foreign Production, and he was the recipient the Stanislavsky Award for his work as a director. Beginning in 2002, he directed several operas in cities such Florence, Milan (in La Scala), Moscow (in the Bolshoi Theatre), and the Lithuanian National Opera House. His most important distinctions include the State Prize of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Lithuania (1983), the State Prize of the Soviet Union (1987), the State Prize of the Russian Federation (1999), and the Europe Prize for New Theatrical Realities (1991). In 1992, he was named the best European director of the Union of the Theatres of Europe. He died in november 2018. Sons Of The Bitch is his latest performance.

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