About the Production
“Even though Kaspar is very much an antidrama, it is primarily a myth transformed into a play named after its protagonist, so what could be more conventional? These are the elements that the author uses to bring us back to its ancient source. The same method is used with the other characters or voices placed there to do away with the idea of a character and, at the same time, to remind us of the chorus in ancient Greek drama or even heralds/harbingers. Challenging to stage, but also challenging to read and incorrigibly theoretical, this play simultaneously degrades and annihilates everything that is dramatic and establishes itself through an unstoppable torrent of words telling us that drama has always been and will forever be about words. This dichotomy in Handke’s approach, this divisive unity, simultaneously being academic and underground, is political in the very essence of the word.”
Miloš Lolić (taken from the program book)
The Author
MILOŠ LOLIĆ graduated Theatre and Radio directing from the Faculty of Dramatic Art in Belgrade. He started his career in Bitef Theatre (Adam and Eve by Miroslav Krleža, 2002), in Belgrade directed for Yugoslav Drama Theatre, Atelje 212 Theatre, Little Theatre “Duško Radović”, National Theatre in Belgrade, and later in other European theatres (Mestno gledališče Ljubljana, Volkstheater Munich, Dusseldorfer Schauspielhaus, Dusseldorf, Maxim Gorki Theatre, Berlin, SNT Drama Ljubljana, Volkstheater Vienna...). In the past couple of years, he directed in: Theater Basel (Idomeneus by Roland Schimmelpfennig, 2017 and In the Garden or Lysistrata Part Two by Sibylle Berg based on Aristophanes, 2019), Burgtheater, Vienna (Black Battles with Dogs by Bernard-Marie Koltès, 2018), Schauspielhaus Frankfurt (On the Royal Road: The Burgher King by Elfriede Jelinek, 2018 and Quartett by Heiner Müller, 2020).
He has received many awards, among which are Grand Prix Mira Trailović at 43rd BITEF theatre festival for the production of The Enthusiasts by Robert Musil (YDT, Belgrade, 2008), The Politika Award for best direction at 46th BITEF theatre festival and best direction award at the Bayerischen Theatertage festival in Augsburg for the production of Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca (Volkstheater, Munich, 2011), Grand Prix at Borštnikovo srečanje festival for the production of Bartleby, the Scrivener after a short story by Herman Melville (Mini Teatar, Ljubljana, 2011), the Nestroy Theatre Prize for Magic Afternoon by Wolfgang Bauer (Volkstheater, Vienna, 2012), the April Award of the City of Belgrade for the production of Othello by William Shakespeare (YDT, Belgrade, 2012), two Dorothea Neff Awards for The Presidents by Werner Schwab (Volkstheater, Vienna, 2014) and Lazarus by Enda Walsh and David Bowie (Volkstheater, Vienna, 2018), Ljubomir Muci Draškić Award for Kaspar (YDT, Belgrade, 2021).
From the Reviews
“Kaspar brings to mind Frankenstein’s monster, Büchner’s Woyzeck, and Shakespeare’s Caliban, a being from the mud of nature, disciplined by the authorities (Prospero). In that respect, he can be understood as a part of the continuity of social terror (the history of theatre mirrors the history of the society), one of the numerous examples of “discipline and punishment” (Foucault). The continuity of terror proves man’s invincibility, and if we see Kaspar as our contemporary, as a being forced into yet another brutal experiment of discipline and control, we are led to conclude that humanity will survive like it survived everything else, with deep or minor scars. ”
Ana Tasić, Politika
“Director Miloš Lolić could not have picked a play that better reflect this day and age. The idea that runs through this entire production is that the current system, with its political correctness, high technology and an accumulation of rules that has reached its boiling point, has, quite paradoxically, engendered a complete chaos in people’s minds and trapped them in glass cages with its red lines, norms and prohibitions. ”
Bojan Munjin, portalnovosti.com
“Kaspar by the Yugoslav Drama Theatre is a walk through a nightmare, which is asking you to wake up. ”
Nataša Gvozdenović, Vreme
