First Balkan Theater Festival

TIRANA, September 1 – Comedy “Six characters in search of an author” by Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello opened on Wednesday evening at the National Theatre in Tirana the first edition of the Balkan Theatre festival, an experimental event bringing together Balkan theatres in Tirana.
The comedy premiered last April in the frame of Italian-Albanian great season of cultural events was directed by Mehmet Xhelili, and brought on stage Fatos Sela, Olta Daku, and Eftiola Lacka.
Regarded as one of the most influential plays of the 20th century, “Six characters in search of an author” is a classic work of the theater of the absurd. The play follows the drama of six fictional, but living and breathing characters, members of one family.
The festival continued on Thursday with a performance by Bulgaria’s “Racho Stoyanov” theatre which staged the “Thorn Apple,” a play written by Georgi Karaslavov and directed by Nevena Miteva and Nadia Asenova.
Friday will bring on stage Montenegro’s Podgorica theatre with “Beyond therapy,” a play written by Christopher Durang and directed by Alisa Stojanovic.
The event will continue on Saturday, September 5 with “Nje perkujtim ne kafe teater” (A memoir in coffee theatre” a play by Kosovo’s Dodona theatre. The play written and directed by Haqif Mulliqi, brings the traumas of an ex-Kosovo soldier in the Balkan wars.
Bosnia Herzegovina participates in the festival with the “Poor Little Hampsters” written by Gordan Mihic and directed by Dragan Stijic.
The festival will close on September 6 with Greece’s “Blue Plaque” troupe performing Nikolay Gogol’s “Diary of a Madman” bringing on stage Laert Vasili, Albania’s most famous actor in Greece.
The festival’s organizers, Albanian director Gezim Kame and his Kosovo colleague Haqif Mulliqi said this year’s experimental edition was a test for next year.
According to Kame, the event serves to exchange experience among Balkan theatre and revive the Albanian theatrical.
No prizes will be awarded in this first edition of the festival considering the small financial support by the Culture Ministry and some sponsors which organizers said was enough only to provide the theatrical troupes’ accommodation.