In the midst of all the despair
and destruction, it was time to celebrate the traditional Sarajevo Winter
Festival. The festival was held for the first time in 1984 coincide
with the 14th Olympic Winter games and has continued since then, even during
the war.
"We call upon
the world to ponder over freedom and peace. The festival proves not to
be merely a festival, nut life itself," said Abraham Shape, director of
the festival, which attracts hundreds of people from around the world.
Participating
this year in the festival were Serge Dreznin and Jesse Webb. Dreznin is
a Russian composer and Webb is an American actor, specializing in musicals.
The two put together Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo -- a
musical that had already performed to rave reviews in Vienna. Their dream
was to take the play to Bosnia.
And their dream
came true when on the invitation of the Austrian Cultural Center in Zagreb,
the duo got to play not only in Sarajevo, but also in Bihac, Mostar and
Tuzla. "Audiences sat through the performance in halls, hugging their overcoats
and with bodies huddled close together to keep each other warm," gushed
Dreznin.
But isn't theatre
the last thought on the mind of people of Sarajevo, one wonders? After
all, the four-year-old war has reduced the capital city of Bosnia-Herzogovina
to rubble. "We did not come and have a good time with us," claims Webb,
insisting that theatre for him is sharing his joy with others and their
sorrow with himself, or the other way round. "I try to say that the most
of you have lost the loved one in the war. But we still have to go on living
like decent human beings." For Web, the trip to Sarajevo is another attempt
to try and reach out to people. To connect.
The idea to do
the musical was inspired not so much by the war in Sarajevo as by Shakespeare
himself. Dreznin, who trained as a concert pianist at the Russian Academy
of Musical Art in Moscow, adores the classics. At the Academy, Dreznin
was taught the classics without much fuss and discussions on the differences
between intellectual and commercial art. To study the works of the great
masters was considered very normal.
Dressing has
put other works by Shakespeare and Pushkin to music as well in the past.
He had done Ophelia - Opera in blue and Hamlet and the Pushkin
tragedy, CrossRoads. The troubles in Sarajevo, recounted to him
by his journalist wife and her colleagues in the international press, he
says, reminded him of Shakespeare. "Even realities change, but Shakespeare
remains the same," says Dreznin, adding that their production does not
pretend to make any lofty statements. "Everybody knows that the war is
bad. I don't have to go to Sarajevo or to other place to say that. Its
the topicality of Shakespeare that makes it so fascinating. Sarajevo is
just a symbol connecting our time to that of Shakespeare's".
Once he had made
a connection between Shakespeare and sarajevo, Dreznin put together a team
in which the writer came from Sarajevo, the director from Zagreb and the
cast from different parts of Bosnia. The actress playing Juliet is a Serb,
while Romeo is an actor from Tuzla and they all live in exile in Austria,
along with thousands of other refugees.
So what was an
American doing in this group? Says Dreznin, "Trying to keep peace here.
Or trying to cause trouble?" Webb, who resembles the bard of Stratford
himself, replies after a hearty laugh that life in America is not
as rosy as people think it to be. "There is plenty of unemployment in my
country."
Webb came to
Vienna nine years ago, to play a part in the record-breaking Andrew L.
Webber musical, Cats. He stayed on for roles in Les Miserebles
and Kiss of a Spider Woman. These were good jobs, he says, much
better that anything he could dream of doing in America. And he finds this
production of Romeo and Juliet especially thrilling. "I love the story
and the songs in the play. Besides, it has become a living experience
for me as I work with a cast from over central Europe. Especially from
Bosnia. And we have been forced to communicate with each other passionately
in every language possible about what should go into the production."
To prove how
topical Shakespeare really is, the original location of Romeo and
Juliet has been moved from Verona in Italy to Sarajevo in the 1990s. While
the language (for the songs)remains that of the author, the dialogues
is translated into German and Serbo-Croat and the finale is sung in English,
Bosnian, German and French. But it is Tune for Bosnia, the encore,
which resonates in the memory long after the show is over.
The play opens
with a devided Sarajevo and the United Nations officer trying to stop the
fight berween the Capulets and the Montagues. The background score is in
rap. Instead of the square in Verona, the stoty unfolds at a cafee
house called Casper, where it is possible to meet some of the most famouse
people in the world, like Susan Sontag, CNN´s Christian Amanpour
and kings of the underworld.
Romeo, a Serb, meets his lovely Juliet, a Moslem,
and sings: "My only love sprung from my only hate." They convert to Christianity
to be able to escape Sarajevo through Roman Catholic Croatia. However,
as a illfated pair prepares to flee, two shots are fired on the bridge
Vrbanja. And they meet their end at each others arms.
Later, it is the opportunism, or perhaps the farsightedness,
of a waiter at the coffee house, who remembers to sell the story of Sarajevo´s
Romeo and Juliet to a foreign reporter for $ 6,000.thus enabling the two
to emerge as an international symnol of the war.
And leaving one to wonder, once again,whether it
is art that imitates life or the other way round?