TIRANA, Jan. 22 – Kosovo director Ilir Bokshi has already selected the cast of Albanian actors for his Sophocles’ Oedipus the King tragedy which will be the first premiere at the National Theatre in Tirana for this year scheduled to stage early next March.”We will bring current issues based on ancient times. We will focus on Sophocles’ text, but the analysis and situation will be from current times. History and characters are basic to the play but not in our stage,” says Kosovo director Ilir Bokshi.
Helidon Fino, Yllka Mujo, Neritan Licaj and Ema Andrea have been given the key roles in the drama. Directed by Kosovo’s Ilir Bokshi, the tragedy will come as cooperation between the Albanian and Kosovo national theatres.
The director of the National Theatre Skrami describes Bokshi as one of the most creative directors of the younger generation, appreciated not only in the pan-Albanian spaces. “This premiere comes as a co-production between the Albanian and Kosovo theatres. The Kosovo theatre is bringing the managing cast such as the director, the composer, the stage and costume designers while Albania will provide the performers,” Skrami says.
Oedipus the King, also known by the Latin title Oedipus Rex, is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed c. 429 BCE. It was the second of Sophocles’s three Theban plays to be produced, but it comes first in the internal chronology, followed by Oedipus at Colonus and then Antigone. Oedipus Rex chronicles the story of Oedipus, a man who becomes the king of Thebes who was destined from birth to murder his father Laius and marry his mother Jocasta. The play is an example of a classic tragedy, noticeably containing an emphasis on how Oedipus’s own faults contribute to the tragic hero’s downfall, as opposed having fate be the sole cause.
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
American director John Blondell has also arrived in Albania where he will stage the premiere of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the National Theatre and has already started with the auditions. “It is the first experience for me to stage Shakespeare in another country in the national language. The reason is because we are searching for an unknown land, or something new and fresh,” says Blondell. “I am in love with this part, it is one of the most beautiful languages ever staged. My goal is to make Shakespeare rather different but especially Albanian,” adds Blondell.
Directed by United States’ John Blondell, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” will be the great premiere the Albanian National Theatre plans to stage in the first half of this year. Kristaq Skrami says that Blondell, one of Shakespeare’s most famous researcher, will start auditions this month before continuing working to stage the play by next March.
Blondell’s cooperation with the Albanian National Theatre emerged last year when Albania participated in London’s Globe to Globe festival with part II of Shakespeare’s Henry VI. Blondell was the director of the Macedonian theatre performing Henry VI’s part III.
John Blondell is Professor of Theatre Arts at Westmont College. He is co-founder and director of the Lit Moon Theatre Company, an award-winning international theatre ensemble, and founder of the Lit Moon World Theater Festival, an international theatre festival produced yearly in Santa Barbara. In 2006, he created the Lit Moon World Shakespeare Festival, the only international Shakespeare Festival in the United States, and one of seven in the world.
Believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596, Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta.
The play is expected to make its premiere next May.
