A PROJECT BY: SAŠA BOŽIĆ AND PETRA HRAŠĆANEC
PERFORMERS: NATAŠA DANGUBIĆ AND VIŠNJA VITAS
STAGE AND COSTUME DESIGNER: ZDRAVKA IVANDIJA KIRIGIN
SOUND DESIGNER: DAMIR ŠIMUNOVIĆ
LIGHT DESIGNER: MARINO FRANKOLA
PHOTOGRAPHER: MARKO ERCEGOVIĆ
STAGE MANAGER: MILICA KOSTANIĆ
PRODUCER: MARIO GIGOVIĆ
Folk Acts is a theatre performance for actress and singer of turbo folk music. The title itself indicates the dealing with the politics of performance. The English meaning of the word “Folk”, can be characterized as “nation”, while the word “Acts” comes from the terminology of drama theatre, but also as a verb “to do”.
Project’s political blade is contained in a possible translation “happening of the nation”. The known political term is turned upside down during the performance and results in the reshuffling of performativity of gender in the theater and reshuffling the performativity of the body and gender in folk music, as well.
Folk Acts was the second part of a multiannual performance and research project titled On Entertainment. The project interest lies in the examination of the ontological status of a performer in the encounter with the audience. On Entertainment project will be developed in various formats and performance production forms, with an accent put on borderline types of genres positioned in line with the so-called on the edge aesthetics.
Folk Acts was a graduation project by student Mario Gigović at the Department of production of stage and performing arts.
In this performance, the authors deconstruct myths about theatre and turbo- folk in an hour-long fugue about solemn and worthless art. Two ladies on the stage literally dismantle the set and take the parts away. At the end, they are alone in an empty space under a bright light…facing one another, yet unbelievably close. Do we experience both theatre and turbo- folk? The authors intend to show that performing arts remain in the eye of the observer, i.e. in the observer’s expectations. There is no good, bad or better; there is only an actress (often on the verge of a nervous breakdown) and a singer (whose experience made her phlegmatic) doing their job. The audience is the one to attribute the epithets and symbols to that job.
© Bojana Radović, Večernji list newspaper
The question: “Is Višnja relaxed because she performs as herself, and I, Nataša, perform a role and I am always someone else?“ is a logical continuation of the storyline, the performance and the concept. Although Nataša Dangubić is a very good singer who knows how to introduce us to her feelings, Višnja Vitas is authentic and genuine and even if you are not a big fan of this kind of music, you are ready to react when she calls “Hands up!” With their charm, wittiness and genuineness, the academic actress and the bar singer have showed that they share goals: they both want to communicate emotions and they both want to enjoy themselves!
© Olga Vujović, kritikaz.com