“Wrong Dinner” closes Albania-Kosovo days

TIRANA, Feb. 17 – A drama staged by the Albanian National Theatre in Prishtina on Wednesday evening closed the “Albania-Kosovo” Cultural Days held from February 5 to 16 on the eve of Kosovo’s third anniversary of the declaration of independence.
The Albanian National Theatre staged the “Darka e Gabuar,” (Wrong Dinner) drama based on the novel under the same title written by Ismail Kadare which had its premiere in May 2010.
Dramatized and directed by Fatos Haxhiraj, the “Wrong Dinner” brought together some of the best actors of the National Theatre such as Ndricim Xhepa, Artan Imami, Bujar Asqeriu.
The drama tells the story of a mysterious dinner in the German occupied southern town of Gjirokastra in 1943 between a Nazi commander and his Albanian university friend, a doctor in Gjirokastra. The mysterious dinner is later investigated by the Albanian communist authorities.
The stage of the Wrong Dinner followed three performances by the Kosovo National Theatre in Tirana. On Feb. 5 Kosovo actors staged the Albanian drama called “Heshtja” (Silence) written by Refet Abazi and directed by Arta Kallaba. One day later, they brought on the stage of the National Theatre in Tirana the “Death and the Maiden,” a psychological drama by Chilean playwright Ariel Dorfman. Meanwhile, on Feb. 13 the Prishtina Theatre staged a drama by Romanian playwright Eug鯥 Ionesco.
The event was held in the frame of the “One Nation, one culture” initiative and in the frame of a memorandum of understanding among the Albanian speaking theatres of Tirana, Prishtina and Skopje signed 3 years ago.
Other events held to celebrate Kosovo’s third independence birthday in Albania included a concert by the National Ensemble of Folk Songs and Dances on Feb. 16 at the National Theatre of Opera and Ballet in Tirana and some concerts in Elbasan and Lezha on Feb. 17.