This year, Juventafest is having its fourth anniversary. Although it is still “young“, since the beggining it is evident that this festival is fulfilling its mission – to connect high school students from whole Europe and enable them to share different visions of theater arts through work and at the same time learn from each other through plays.
This year, audience will have the opurtunity to see eight performances in a totally different style and genre, created in a completely different production conditions mostly in smaller cities, which is very interesting and what makes us really happy.
Although formally and essentially different, all performances are adorned with exceptionally mature reflection of reality. While one part of the selection excels very engaged approach to important social themes, the other part is one might say, even a little escapist; through it, high school students run away from the surrounding world, creating a better and more beautiful reality.
High school students from the Second gymnasium Maribor have very ambitiously and successfully prepared Orwell’s „Animal Farm“, and the result is visually attractive, precise and uniform set. The theater from Čakovec comes with an adaptation of the novel “We Children From Banhof Zoo” where the energetic play and interesting stage set show that they have mastered the material; The large Kotor ensemble of group Empty Space will perform the play “God” with the same text name of author Woody Allen, who is known for his cynical approach to art and life itself, and their performance is characterized by an extraordinary gift for improvisation and the art that makes even most demanding audience laugh; the only Bosnian performance in this year’s selection is a performance “Virus” of the gymnasium „Filip Višnjić“ in Bijeljina, where the life of a man suffering from HIV is thematized, avoiding stereotypes and successfully trying to present the multilayered problem.
While first four performances are characterized by the dealing with socialy engaged topics, other performances stand out in an attempt to build a different world with a completely different rules. Performance of the Dance Forum Celje “N.A.G.” is visually minimalist, but the actors dominate the art of contemporary dance through which they try to show the stratification of identity and relationship of the individual towards his own body as his carrier; from the Norwegian city Bergen, comes theatrical troupe “Global Theatre” with the play “Alice, who the f *** is Alice,” always current adaptation of the Kerol’s novel, with imaginative stage set and well coordinated ensemble; Theater Studio “Muela” from Tula in Russia literally creates its own small world through pantomime in „Upside down! The reverse side of the Earth“, a world dominated by some strange creatures, who with their lightness of being, spread the sense of happiness and meaning.
The last show that we can not easily classify in the first nor the second category, because of equal arguments for both, comes from Bečej, called “The Bald Soprano” written by Ionesco. Well coordinated, with energetic and charming ensemble and very original directorial solutions.
I hope you will enjoy the shows, equally as performers enjoy their stay on the scene and that we will again successfully learn from each other and look forward to a brighter (theater) future!
