INTERNATIONAL THEATER FESTIVAL MESS 2000

The time of "surplus of history"

We are living in a time of "surplus of history". It is almost impossible, in this part of the world, to find a man or a building that has been there, functioning and existing for any significant period of time. That is why it is a true miracle when one finds something that has achieved continuity, such as the MESS festival. Ideologies change here every forty years, while the MESS Festival is permanently and consistently pursuing one idea: to be open towards contemporary theatrical trends, never reducing the horizon of understanding of theatrical language, showing full respect for the freedom of creative concepts and systems of its authors.

The founder of the Festival - a modest and quiet man of grand ideas and actions, Jurislav Juco Korjenic - who has established the Festival that would consistently follow all the brilliant and imaginative endeavors related to the theatre of the 20th century which was the century of experiments in the art of theatre. This has been a dynamic journey, regardless of all its problems and failures, anticipated questions regarding the present state of this art and regarding its future alike.

We can not provide the answers to those questions today either. There is something, however, about which we are quite certain: MESS does save us from the world that is deteriorating, it does offer us a more superior notion of theatre. The theatre capable re-producing to the full the content of an epoch, the theatre that stands against the present emptied and anachronous common places, the theatre in permanent pursuit of the form of true life of our time, the theatre that satisfies our sensual, emotional and erotic needs. Forty years have elapsed since the first MESS Festival. We have always believed, and will continue to have confidence in such the concept of the Festival, because that is where the reasons are to be found for the survival of the Festival after all these years.

Dino Mustafic, the MESS Festival Director

Official Selection

16.10.2000. GERMANY;
Volksbühne am Rosa Luxemburg-Platz;
"Murx", directed by Christoph Marthaler
Bosnian National Theater Zenica, 7:30 p.m.

17.10.2000. BELGIUM;
Company Les Ballets C. de la B.;
"A Perfect Nothing", choreography Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
National Theater, 7 p.m.

18.10.2000. CROATIA;
Hrvatsko narodno kazaliste Split;
L. Pirandello "Six Characters in Search for a Writer",
directed by François-Michel Pesenti
National Theater, 7 p.m.

19.10.2000. SLOVENIA;
Slovensko mladinsko gledalisce Ljubljana;
"Drrream", directed by Vito Taufer
National Theater, 7 p.m.

19.10.2000. BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA;
Festival MESS and Sarajevska zima;
M.Ravenhill "Shopping and Fucking", directed by Tanja Miletic - Orucevic
ASU, 9 p.m.

20.10.2000. SWITZERLAND;
Markus Zohner Theater Compagnie;
"HA! HAmlet", directed by Markus Zohner
Youth Theater, 7 p.m.

21.10.2000. POLAND;
Teatr Narodowy Warszawa;
"Nowe Bloomusalem", directed by Jerzy Grzegorzewski
of Ulysses by James Joyce,
translated by Macie Slomczynski
National Theater, 7 p.m.

21.10.2000. SPAIN;
Noviembre compania de teatro and Teatro de la Abadia;
"Not Everyone is a Nightingale", directed by Eduardo Vasco
Youth Theater, 9 p.m.

22.10.2000. SLOVENIA;
Slovensko narodno gledalisce Drama Ljubljana;
J.B.P.Molier "The Misantrope", directed by Slobodan Unkovski
National Theater, 7 p.m.

22.10.2000. JAPAN;
Taichi-Kikaku;
"The Radiant Trip", directed by Rumiko Morimura
Youth Theater, 9 p.m.

23.10.2000. BULGARIA;
Theatre-Laboratory Sfumato;
"The Black Fleece", directed by Margarita Mladenova and Ivan Dobchev
Youth Theater, 7 p.m.

24.10.2000. LITHUANIA;
Meno Fortas Theater Company;
Shakespeare: "Machbeth", directed by Eimuntas Nekrosius
National Theater, 7 p.m.

25.10.2000. MACEDONIA;
Dramski teatar Skopje;
K. Mann "Mephisto", directed by Kole Angelovski
National Theater, 7 p.m.

26.10.2000. Closing Ceremony
National Theater, 8 p.m.

Festival premiers

20, 21, 22.10.2000.
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA/SLOVENIA;
EX Ponto, Poletni festival Kopar and Festival MESS;
H. Muller "Philoctetes" directed by Eduard Miler
Hotel Bristol, 9 p.m.

23.10.2000. BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA;
Festival MESS, Chamber Theater and ASU;
J.Glowacki "Hunt for Cockroaches", directed by Lajla Penjic,
Chember Theater 55, 9 p.m.