Performance

The brave and challenging “Nora”, as directed by Haris Pašović, breaks all stereotypes. It is both spectacularly entertaining, with outstanding dances, costumes, lights and music, as well as profoundly serious in its approach to the philosophy of liberty, individualism and women’s rights.

 Nora and Torvald Helmer are a power couple. They are good-looking, successful, lead a sophisticated life and style, and are both incredibly sexy. At first glance, the life of Nora and Torvald Helmer is the model of a happy marriage in the modern world. Torvald is a rising star in the financial world, very concerned about his public image, loves expensive cars and collects expensive watches, and at the same time enjoys a blissful family life, alongside a wife with top-model looks, and a precious five-year old daughter. His wife Nora, similarly, enjoys shopping, exclusive brands, clothes, shoes, perfumes, watches and luxury lingerie. Their sex life is very liberal and extravagant.

 Nora’s friend Christine suddenly comes back into Nora’s life, turning it around. From an ascetic, hard working young woman, Christine soon becomes a femme-fatale mercilessly ascending the social ladder, powered by ambition and greed. Her lover, Helene Krogstad (in Ibsen’s original, a male character) blackmails both Nora and Torvald. Dr. Rank, a friend of the family, is dying of a terminal disease, and decides to admit Nora that he is in love with her. A financial crisis beguiles Torvald, while Nora starts to lose her composure. Their idyllic world suddenly starts to crumble…

Director 

Haris Pašović received his degree in 1984 from the Novi Sad Academy of Arts, at the Department of Dramatic Arts – Theatre, Film, TV and Radio Direction, and in the class of Professor Boro Drašković. He was also a Fulbright scholar in the United States, and at the Odin Theatre/ Nordic Theatre Institute in Denmark. He has also studied at the University of Lancaster in the UK, and taken part in media study trips to the United States (in Boston, Washington and New York).

Pašović has directed at some of the most important theatres in the region, his plays participating at numerous festivals. Before the war years, he also directed, among other plays, several plays that are today considered classics of regional theatre: Wedekind’s Spring Awakening, and Calling the Birds, based on Aristophanes’ play The Birds, both produced at the Yugoslav Drama Theatre in Belgrade. During the siege of Sarajevo (1992-1995), Pašović spent most of his time in the city, working as the director of the then MESS International Theatre and Film Festival. What was then an abandoned festival was transformed by Pašović into an international festival event of theatre and film. He has also directed Euripides' Alcestis, Silk Drums, In the country of last things, based on a novel by Paul Auster, as well as produced the play Waiting for Godot, as directed by Susan Sontag, and been host to several renowned figures such as Vanessa Redgrave, Annie Liebovitz, Peter Schumann, Chris Keulemans, Johan van der Keoken, and many other artists from around the world. After several years outside theatre, Pašović returned in 2002 with Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet, which was performed in front of the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina in downtown Sarajevo. In 2004, Pašović wrote and directed the play Rebellion at the National Theatre, inspired by McCoy’s novel “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?”, and produced at Sarajevo’s National Theatre.

Pašović has also received numerous awards, including the Golden Laurel Wreath Award for Best Director at the MESS International Theatre Festival, Best Director at Belgrade’s BITEF Festival, the 1989 Bojan Stupica Award for Best Yugoslav Director, the UCHIMURA Prize in 1994 and many others. 

Theatre

The East West Centre is a theatre company established in 2005 in Sarajevo under the artistic directorship of Haris Pašović. The company's first production, William Shakespeare's Hamlet, set in Ottoman times, was, at the time, one of the biggest co-productions in the region in the past twenty years, and involved artists from eight countries. Hamlet was followed by Faust (Faustus), a new and provocative production, which once again involved international artists. The play is a futuristic performance that focuses on artificial intelligence, genetics and nanotechnology. Their next play, Class Enemy, based on Nigel Williams' play and set in today's Bosnia and Herzegovina, was selected and included in the program of the 2008 Edinburgh International Festival, as well as of 2008 Singapore Arts Festival and others. The company’s repertoire also includes Michael Frayn's Copenhagen, directed by Nermin Hamzagić, Ravel's Bolero, choreographed by Tamara Curić, and most recently, Henrik Ibsen's Nora, directed by Haris Pašović.

The East West Centre also develops educational programs that include workshops and lectures in Sarajevo, held by figures such as Thomas Ostermeir, Luke Percival, Tobias Veit, James Morrison and many others.