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).

He has also 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 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.

The performance

When Class Enemy, a play that was based on Nigel Williams' 1978 drama, premiered in Sarajevo, it caused a tumultuous reaction in public circles because of, as it was stated, the play’s exaggeration of the social problems present in this region. This was because director Haris Pašović decided to take Williams' play, set in 1970s Brixton, and thrust it into contemporary Sarajevo. The play is also partly based on news reports published in the daily press, which focus on rising violence in our schools. In preparation for this play, the actors of the East West Company decided to conduct their own research in schools and colleges in Sarajevo, and came across a frustrated generation of children, born and raised during the hostilities of the 1992-1995 war, children whose lives have been marred by financial hardship and the physical consequences that the war had left on their parents. Just like the characters in Williams' play, this generation was in a desperate search of direction, but ended up lost as a result of the circumstances of their lives. The members of the cast in this production come from a broad spectrum of cultural, social and national identities, and all have a personal tragic war story to recount. Social topics receive particular focus in this production, with undertones such as a disintegrating system of social values, isolation, broken homes, alcoholism, xenophobia and physical violence, which together reflect the prism in which children in today’s Bosnia are growing up. Also important is the play’s semantic aspect, in which South London slang has been replaced with its contemporary Sarajevo equivalent - which is based on a language of horror that is the result of the traumas of war, and which has infiltrated itself in the vocabularies of local children.

Class Enemy is set in a dilapidated classroom (described by the protagonists as: "It's crap innit? There's no books, no chalk, no pencils, no windows - just us an' the bleedin' desks, innit?"), where a gang of foul-mouthed problem students wait for their class to begin, but it never does. Instead of a class, they barricade themselves against the outside world and conduct their own lessons, which grow ever more brutal and ultimately end in tragedy.

Theatre

The East West Center 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.