Performance

Lonesome West is a play about the commonplace conflicts that happen between people close to each other, quarrels with either no established cause, or one that is never precisely mentioned, or is forgotten – and is, in any case, entirely irrelevant. When we quarrel, we humans feel alive, even if it is for a brief moment – when we don’t, we are isolated islands, emotional cripples, painfully attached to our belongings, which we cherish and protect from all forms of harm. The play, based on a text by Martin McDonagh, talks about the most frightening kind of loneliness - the loneliness of being surrounded by people and feeling absolutely alone in the crowd. Today, we are witnesses of how our feelings of humanity are dying out. The idea that we live in a world where all sensitivity is considered a weakness, where altruism is seen through disbelieving eyes, which are convinced that behind charity there must be personal gain, is now a very used cliché. Completely obliviously, we believe in the idea that we are not a part of the cruelty of today’s world, that we are not incorrigible materialists, consciously alienated egocentrics. But then McDonagh decides to take away the image that we cherish and identify with, and thus confront us, face to face, with images we do not want to be confronted with, to look at in the eye. Or, in a mirror. 

Director

Selma Spahić was born in 1986 and began studies in direction in the class of Pjer Žalica. During her time at the Academy of Dramatic Arts, she has directed three full-length dramas: The Titanic Orchestra, based on a text by Hristo Boychev, Woyzeck, based on the work by Georg Büchner, as well as her undergraduate thesis project, Spring Awakening, based on the work by Frank Wedekind. She followed on to direct four professional plays in theatres in Bosnia: Paul Zindel's The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, Victory, based on Euripide's tragedies and adapted for the stage by Lada Kaštelan, Flight Over the Cuckoo's Nest, based on the dramatic adaptation of Dale Wasserman, as well as Martin McDonagh's Lonesome West.  

Theatre

The Mostar Youth Theatre was established in 1974 and just recently celebrated 35 years of work. Though it currently operates in difficult conditions (performing plays in an improvised hall, with no real stage or auditorium), the Theatre has succeeded in creating and producing numerous successful plays: (His) Three Sisters, based on Chekhov's Three Sisters, Lonesome West, directed by Selma Spahić, has hosted an International Theatre Festival of Creative Poetics on the occasion of their thirtieth anniversary, as well as organised an international conference on the topic Drama/Theatre and Religion.