Project by director Jug Đorđević and playwright Tijana Grumić

Starring: Ema Muratović, Matija Stefanović i Aleksander Zain

Costume: Velimirka Damjanović

Choreographer and dancer: Aleksander Zain

Project Associates: Vasil Vid Pašanjski, Agata Đurić

Tech Associate: Nemanja Calić

Premiere: 11th March 2023 at the Heartefact House (season 2022/2023)

The focus of the play is the author’s dilemma of whether an artist has the right to speak about systemic, social, and individual forms of discrimination and stigmatization of marginalized groups in our society, even though the author does not belong to those groups. Through a broader thematic framework, the personal story of the main character is skillfully intertwined, which movingly portrays the question of their gender identity.

“The process of creating this play is specific and unconventional for several reasons. Besides the atypical performance space, the content, i.e. the text of this play, did not exist before the rehearsals began, but was created during the process itself, in collaboration with the performers. This approach required sensitivity to the topic that we decided to explore. During discussions about the project, before we even started working on it, Jug and I often debated whether we could, and how we could, address this issue, and what responsibility we had in that case. That debate eventually became one of the cornerstones of our play. Theatre has always been a space of encounter, dialogue, and exchange of opinions, and I believe that it is also a space for questioning and criticizing the reality in which we live, but also a space for dreaming of a better and more just reality, a better and more just society. Since theatre is precisely the space of our action, our reflection on the world, we wanted to use that space to hear those voices that we cannot normally hear on the stage.”

Tijana Grumić

“When Tijana and I received an invitation from Heartefact to work on our own project, it was an offer I didn’t have to think much about. Nowadays, it’s rare that someone calls you to work on your own project, and I believe every director wishes to try their hand at this form of authorship. The second thing is the fact that the thematic framework that deals with issues related to the LGBTQ+ community is an extremely inspiring topic when you have to deal with it in a patriarchal theatre (and social) system like ours in Serbia. The third thing is certainly the unconventional approach and departure from the framework of institutional theater, which Heartefact certainly represents. In the case of this project, we realized that we had to deal with it even before its formal start, that is, we had to reconsider our personal authorial positions and responsibilities towards the topic. If we want to deal with issues that polarize, to deal with questions of representation, artistic exploitation, and manipulation, we must ask what are the limits, if there are any at all, and when is the time, before we start, to sit down and have a collective conversation?”

Jug Đorđević

Festivals/guest performances

Pride Week in Novi Sad – Novi Sad, May 2023