kmd.hr · prijevodu igrale bakhe (1983.), kralj edip, (2011.) i medeja, (2012., u režiji tomaža...

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GRAFIČKI DIZAJN I PRIJELOM GRAPHIC DESIGN AND LAYOUT

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ALKESTIDAALCESTIS

KAZALIŠTE MARINA DRŽIĆAMARIN DRŽIĆ THEATREKOVAČKA 1, 20000 DUBROVNIK—HR

ANA LEDERER

LUCIJA LJUBIĆ

TIBOR HRS PANDUR

MAJI STUDIO

ALJOŠA REBOLJ

ALJOŠA REBOLJ

ALFA 2 D.O.O.

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KAZALIŠTE MARINA DRŽIĆA DUBROVNIK—HRMARIN DRŽIĆ THEATRE DUBROVNIK—CROATIA

NIJEDAN DIO OVE KNJIGE NE SMIJE SE UMNAŽATI, FOTOKOPIRATI NITI NA BILO KOJI DRUGI NAČIN REPRODUCIRATI BEZ NAKLADNIKOVOG I AUTOROVOG PISANOG DOPUŠTENJA.

NOT ANY PART OF THIS BOOK CAN BE MULTIPLIED, COPIED OR REPRODUCED IN ANY OTHER METHOD WITHOUT THE PUBLISHER'S AND AUTHOR'S WRITTEN PERMISSION.

FACEBOOK.COM/KMD.DUBROVNIKINSTAGRAM.COM/KMD–DUBROVNIK YOUTUBE.COM/KMDDUBROVNIK

ALKESTIDAALCESTIS

DUBROVNIK 2019.

PREMIJERA — 14. RUJNA 2019.

PREMIERE — 14 TH SEPTEMBER 2019

ALKESTIDA ALCESTIS

LADA KAŠTELAN PREMA EURIPIDU / AFTER EURIPIDES

REDATELJICA DIRECTOR — LIVIJA PANDUR

ADAPTACIJA TEKSTA I DRAMATURGIJA ADAPTATION AND DRAMATURGY — LADA KAŠTELAN

SCENOGRAF SET DESIGNER — NUMEN (SVEN JONKE)

KOSTIMOGRAFKINJA COSTUME DESIGNER — DANICA DEDIJER

SKLADATELJI COMPOSERS — SILENCE (BORIS BENKO / PRIMOŽ HLADNIK)

OBLIKOVATELJICA SVJETLA LIGHT DESIGNER — VESNA KOLAREC

SURADNICA SCENOGRAFA ASSOCIATE DESIGN ASSISTANT — IRENA KRALJIĆ

ASISTENTICA REDATELJICE ASSISTANT DIRECTOR — MATEJA KOKOL

ASISTENTICA KOSTIMOGRAFKINJE ASSISTANT COSTUME DESIGNER — ANDREA MARIĆ

IGRAJU CAST

ALKESTIDA ALCESTIS — KATARINA STEGNAR

ADMET ADMETUS — IGOR KOVAČ

HERAKLO HERACLES — ZDESLAV ČOTIĆ

ADMETOVA MAJKA ADMETUS' MOTHER — GLORIJA ŠOLETIĆ

GOSTI GUESTS — MIREJ STANIĆ, NIKA LASIĆ, VINI JURČIĆ, HRVOJE SEBASTIJAN, BOJAN BERIBAKA

ZAHVALE: ZRAČNA LUKA DUBROVNIK, ALH D.D., HOTEL LERO, TURISTIČKA ZAJEDNICA GRADA DUBROVNIKA, VALAMAR RIVIERA D.D., IMPORTANNE HOTELI, HOTELI MAESTRAL, KINEMATOGRAFI DUBROVNIK, DUBROVAČKE LJETNE IGRE

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H. SEBASTIJAN

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LADA KAŠTELAN

Lada Kaštelan rođena je u Zagrebu 1961. Na Filozofskom fakultetu u Zagrebu završila je studij klasične filologije1983., a godinu dana poslije na Akademiji dramske umjetnosti i studij dramaturgije. Piše za kazalište, film, televiziju i radio, bavi se prevođenjem.

Dvadeset je godina bila dramaturginja Drame Hrvatskoga narodnog kazališta u Zagrebu. Osim u svom matičnom kazalištu, često je radila kao dramaturginja na brojnim predstavama u drugim kazalištima i na ljetnim festivalima u Dubrovniku i Splitu.

Njezine drame A tek se vjenčali, Adagio, Posljednja karika, Giga i njezini i Prije sna izvođene su u brojnim hrvatskim kazalištima, neke su i nagrađene, a posljednja drama Dva i dvadeset nije doživjela kazališnu nego filmsku praizvedbu, pod naslovom Projekcije.

Prve četiri spomenute drame objavljene su u knjigama Četiri drame (NZMH, 1997.), Prije sna/Before Sleep (ITI, 2007.), Dva i dvadeset/Projekcije (ITI, 2015.), neke su uvrštene u više antologija hrvatske drame i prevedene su na nekoliko jezika. Napisala je originalne scenarije za nekoliko filmova i televizijskih drama, a autorica je i hrvatske verzije izraelske serije Na terapiji (2013.).

Od 2001. predaje dramsko i filmsko pisanje na Odsjeku za dramaturgiju na Akademiji dramske umjetnosti u Zagrebu. Završila je i edukaciju iz psihodrame, kojom se posljednjih petnaest godina aktivno bavi, i čije elemente koristi u svom pedagoškom radu.

Još od studija klasične filologije na različite se načine bavi grčkom dramom – prevodeći ih što je moguće bliže izvorniku, ili pišući svoje autorske adaptacije, u kojima se slobodno igra s građom.

U knjizi Pred vratima Hada (Durieux, 1993.) tiskane su četiri njezine inačice grčkih tragedija: Feničanke, Helena i Alkestida prema Euripidu i Trilogija o Agamemnonu. Prvi dio Trilogije, Prevara, nastao je prema Euripidovoj Ifigeniji na Aulidi, drugi dio, Pobjeda, prema Euripidovim Trojankama i Hekubi, a treći dio, Povratak, prema Eshilovu Agamemnonu.

Feničanke su izvedene na Dubrovačkim ljetnim igrama 1987., u režiji Paola Magellija, i zatim, nakon trideset godina, u Narodnom pozorištu Sarajevo, u režiji Ozrena Prohića. Helena je izvedena na Splitskom ljetu 1990., također u režiji Paola Magellija. Trilogija o Agamemnonu izvedena je u HNK Zagreb 1995. u režiji Ivice Kunčevića, a njezin drugi dio Pobjeda, u sarajevskom Narodnom pozorištu 2008. godine na scenu je postavila Selma Spahić.

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Adaptacija Euripidove Alkestide, napisana 1989., izvedena je na radiju, u režiji Darka Rundeka, no nije doživjela svoju scensku izvedbu, premda se nalazila na repertoarima nekoliko kaza- lišnih kuća.

Euripidovom se Alkestidom Lada Kaštelan na potpuno drukčiji način bavila u ljeto 2003., kad ju je prepjevala i adaptirala u poljički dijalekt za izvedbu na Splitskom ljetu, u poljičkom selu Tugare, u režiji Zlatka Svibena.

U knjizi Grčke tragedije (Mozaik, 2015.) sabrani su njezini prijevodi Euripidovih Bakhi i Medeje, te Sofoklove Antigone i Kralja Edipa, svi prethodno, a i naknadno, izvođeni u kazalištima ili na festivalima. Na Dubrovačkim ljetnim igrama u njezinom su prijevodu igrale Bakhe (1983.), Kralj Edip, (2011.) i Medeja, (2012., u režiji Tomaža Pandura i dramaturgiji Livije Pandur).

K. STEGNAR

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Lada Kaštelan was born in Zagreb in 1961. She graduated in Classical Philology at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in 1983 and a year after Dramaturgy at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb.

She writes and translates for theater, film, television.For 20 years she was the dramaturge of the Croatian

National Theater in Zagreb and frequently collaborated on numerous performances in other theaters and with the summer festivals in Dubrovnik and Split.

Her plays A tek se vjenčali (Just Married), Adagio, Posljednja karika (The Last Link), Giga i njezini (Giga and Hers) i Prije sna (Before Sleep) were performed in numerous Croatian theaters, some highly acclaimed, and the last Dva i dvadeset (Two Twenty) wasn’t performed in theaters, but was adapted for the screen and titled Projekcije (Projections).

The first four mentioned plays are published as Četiri drame /Four Plays (NZMH, 1997), Prije sna/Before Sleep (ITI, 2007), Dva i dvadeset/Projekcije (Two Twenty/Projections) (ITI, 2015), some are part of numerous anthologies of Croatian drama and translated into several languages.

She wrote original screenplays for several films and television dramas and is also the author of the Croatian version of the Israeli series In Treatment (2013).

Since 2001 she teaches screenwriting and playwriting at the department for Dramaturgy in the Academy of the Dramatic Arts in Zagreb. She finished her education in psychodrama, with which she actively engages since the last fifteen years, elements of which she includes in her pedagogic work.

Since her studies in Classical Philology she is engaged with Greek drama in various ways – translating them as closely to the original as possible, or freely adapting them. In the book Pred vratima Hada (At the Gates of Hades) (Durieux, 1993) four of her versions of Greek tragedies are published: The Phoenicians, Helena and Alcestis after Euripides and The Trilogy of Agamemnon. The first part of the Trilogy, Betrayal, was made after Euripides’ Iphigenia in Aulis, the second part, Victory, after Euripides’ Women of Troy and Hecuba and the third, Homecoming, after Aeschylus Agamemnon.

The Phoenicians were performed at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival in 1987, directed by Paolo Magelli and 30 years later in the National Theater of Sarajevo, directed by Ozren Prohić. Helena K. STEGNAR

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was performed at the Split Summer Festival in 1990, directed by Paolo Magelli. The Trilogy of Agamemnon was performed in HNK Zagreb in 1995, directed by Ivica Kunčević and the second part of Victory was directed by Selma Spahić in the National Theater of Sarajevo in 2008. Her adaptation of Alcestis, written in 1989 was made for radio by Darko Rundek and has not been performed on stage, although it was selected for repertoires in several theaters.

Lada Kaštelan engaged with Alcestis in a completely different way in 2003 when she adapted it into the dialect of the Croatian region of Poljica. This version was performed at the Split Summer Festival, in the village of Tugare, directed by Zlatko Sviben.

In the book Grčke tragedije/Greek Tragedies (Mozaik, 2015) we can find her collected translations of Euripides’ Bacchae and Medea, as well as Sophocles’ Antigone and King Oedipus, all of them performed in theaters and festivals. Her translations of the Bacchae (1983), King Oedipus (2011) and Medea (2012), the latter directed by Tomaž Pandur with Livija Pandur as dramaturge, were performed at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival.

K. STEGNAR, I . KOVAČ

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K. STEGNAR, M. STANIĆ, N. LASIĆ, V. JURČIĆ

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INTERVJU S REDATEL�ICOM LIVI�OM PANDUR

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ŽARKO DRAGOJEVIĆ Na Dubrovačkim ljetnim igrama radili ste 2012. kao dramaturginja koprodukcijskog projekta Medeja, a sada kao redateljica prvi put surađujete s Kazalištem Marina Držića na poziv ravnatelja Paola Tišljarića. Što je bilo presudno za vaš dolazak u Dubrovnik i odabir Alkestide?

LIVIJA PANDUR Poziv ravnatelja Paola Tišljarića za mene je bio veliki izazov, njegovu sam kazališnu predanost već imala prilike upoznati i mislim da će svojom mladenačkom energijom dati i umjetnički, i produkcijski, polet ovom divnom kazalištu u gradu koji obožavam. Naši uvjeti za rad su bili takvi, kakve se samo može poželjeti.

Alkestida je “došla” na prijedlog Lade Kaštelan. U tom sam tekstu odmah prepoznala materijal koji me je jako inspirirao. Poslije Medeje, još jedna strankinja u Gradu, ali druga priča, drugo vrijeme, druge samoće, drugačija bol...

Susret glumaca KMD-a, gostujućih glumaca i moje stalne autorske ekipe omogućio je kreativan proces u kojem sam mogla ispričati tu zagonetnu tragičnu priču. ŽD Tridesetak godina na različite načine baveći se grčkom dramom, prevodeći ih ili slobodno se autorski igrajući s građom, Lada Kaštelan sada se ponovno vratila Alkestidi: kakva je ta nova Alkestida nastala iz vaše suradnje na tekstu i u procesu rada na predstavi, gdje vam je Lada Kaštelan ujedno i dramaturginja? LP Ladu sam upoznala radeći na Medeji prema njezinom prijevodu, a poslije smo surađivale i na predstavama Faust u madridskom teatru Centro Dramático Nacional i Richardu III + II u ljubljanskoj Drami gdje smo surađivale na adaptaciji tekstova. Njezin senzibilitet, razumijevanje kazališta i dramaturške građe jako su mi bliski. Prepoznale smo se u zrelim stvaralačkim godinama u zajedničkoj želji da progovorimo o temama koje nas se obje duboko tiču. Način na koji Lada pristupa antičkim tekstovima omogućio mi je onakvo čitanje ovog teksta kakvo i ja osjećam. Poetika skrivena u ogoljenim rečenicama, koje zvuče kao da su pisane danas, postale su okosnica koncepta predstave.

Čuvenu Alkestidu „pod velom“ (Jan Kott) danas smo pročitale sa svojim osobnim iskustvom, tražeći odgovore na bitna egzistencijalna pitanja: o ljubavi, smrti, gubitku, odnosima, društvu... Naša Alkestida našla se u međuprostoru u kojem LIVIJA PANDUR – TONCI PLAZIBAT / CROPIX

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vrijeme stoji. Otišla je u sobe mrtvih, a u ekstatičnom stanju, mrtva može promatrati život bez sebe... U trenutku istine, u našoj je priči digla veo i šuteći ispričala to što svi naslućujemo.

Zašto Alkestida daje svoj život za život svog muža? Je li ona najbolja žena koja ima najgoreg muža ili je riječ o nečem drugom? Što je zapravo hrabrost: otići ili ostati? Je li se uopće vratila u život? Naši se Alkestida i Admet ponovno susreću, ali pitanje je gdje.

ŽD Alkestidu igra Katarina Stegnar, prvakinja Slovenskog mladinskog gledališča. Alkestida je strankinja, ali tko su nama danas, posebice u Dubrovniku, stranci?

LP Katarina Stegnar je glumica koju obožavam i s kojom radim prvi put. Kao glumica je u ovom gradu strankinja, kao i ja. Njen glumački habitus je iznimno bogat i raznovrstan. Pratim njezin rad od samih početaka: od izvanrednih performansa, do njezinih uloga u Slovenskom mladinskom gledališču u Ljubljani. Osjetila sam da je baš ona „moja“ Alkestida, tako krhka i lijepa i ranjiva, a u isto vrijeme nevjerojatno moćna i hrabra. Kazalište je ipak prostor u kojem se sve granice brišu, prostor susreta u kojem stranci ne postoje. Tko su vaši, tko su naši, a koji su njihovi? Koja je razlika između jednog ljudskog bića i drugoga? U našim životima sretnemo neke ljude s razlogom, neke u prolazu, a neki nam ostanu za cijeli život. I za smrt. O tome govori naša predstava.

ŽD Pandur.Theaters jedan je od neizostavnih brendova međuna-rodnog kazališnog svijeta posljednjih desetljeća, a predstave u režiji Tomaža Pandura na kojima ste bili dramaturginja ali i producentica i danas obilaze svjetske pozornice. Koliko je Alkestida u vašem redateljskom konceptu na tragu teatra Tomaža Pandura, ili se pak konceptualno i estetski odmiče i razlikuje?

LP S Tomažem sam radila više od četrdeset godina, zajedno smo umjetnički odrastali i razvijali svoj kazališni rukopis. Stvarali smo u neprestanom dijalogu, oboje smo u kazalište unosili sebe, uvijek beskompromisno i iskreno, pa tako i moj samostalni rad ne može biti drukčiji. U posljednjih nekoliko godina shvatila sam da je scena jedini prostor gdje mogu i želim stvarati, i da imam još mnogo reći o svijetu u kojemu živimo. Tomaževe i moje predstave još putuju po svijetu i ostavljaju svoj trag, a ja, sama, radim neke nove, svoje priče, koje, kao i Alkestida, pričaju o smrti, ljubavi,

samoći i svim onim stvarima koje možemo reći samo na kazališnim daskama.

ŽD Kao iznimno predanoj umjetnici i uspješnoj u svim kazališnim ulogama – dramaturginje, producentice i redateljice – postoji li ipak za vas dio kazališnog posla ili procesa koji najviše osjećate kao svoj, ako je to uopće moguće razdvojiti?

LP Poslije toliko godina, kazalište je za mene cjelina, skupnost, nedjeljivost. Bila sam na sceni i kao glumica, pa imam i to iskustvo, koje je možda najvažnije kad radiš s druge strane. U kazalištu se na neki način sve uloge nadopunjuju, a najznačajnija je strast prema tome što radimo. Naravno, i profesionalnost koja danas nije tako česta na našim pozornicama. Ukratko, kazalište je za mene cjelina, neovisno o ulozi u kojoj jesi, rad na predstavi doživljavam cjelovito, odgovorno, poštujući sve suradnike. Samo se u međusobnom angažmanu rađaju autentična ostvarenja. Onda je u tom “čudesnom rudniku duša” sve moguće.

ŽD Slovenska udruga dramskih umjetnika 2018. godine dodijelila vam je nagradu za životno djelo. U nizu nagrada tijekom proteklih desetljeća znači li ona za vas nešto posebno? Što biste istaknuli kao osobno posebno važno u svojoj bogatoj karijeri?

LP Najveća nagrada u tom dugom vremenskom razdoblju koje sam proživjela u kazalištu moja je proširena umjetnička obitelj. To je mreža odnosa koju sam stekla s Tomažem, na velikom geografskom prostoru, na raznim kontinentima. I taj osjećaj, da je naše kazalište ostavljalo trag u ljudima, koje smo doticali

– to mi je poticaj da radim dalje. ŽD Kakvi su vaši daljnji kazališni planovi?

LP Nakon Dubrovnika režirat ću u madridskom Teatro Español suvremeni tekst Jeka Henryja Naylora s dvjema vrhunskim španjolskim glumicama. Planova ima puno, ali koji će se od njih ostvariti, ne znam. U ovoj životnoj fazi vlastitog mira ne moram stalno raditi, ni pod svaku cijenu. Imam povjerenja da će me projekti pronaći sami, spontano.

INTERVIEW WITH THE DIRECTOR LIVI�A PANDUR

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ŽARKO DRAGOJEVIĆ You were involved as the dramaturg of Medea in 2012, coproduced by the Dubrovnik Summer Festival and now you are collaborating for the first time with Marin Držić Theater (KMD) by invitation of its general manager Paolo Tišljarić. What made you decide to come to Dubrovnik and choose Alcestis?

LIVIJA PANDUR The invitation extended by Paolo Tišljarić was a great challenge to me, I experienced his devotion to theatre in the past and I think his youthful energy will give a deciding artistic and productional boost to this beautiful theater in a city I love. One can only wish for such working conditions as we have received.

Alcestis was suggested by Lada Kaštelan. In her adaptation I immediately recognized highly inspirational material. After Medea, another stranger in Dubrovnik, but a different story, a different time, different solitudes, a different pain …

The coming together of the KMD ensamble, guest actors and my regular artistic collaborators made it possible for a creative process to ensue in which I was able to tell this mysterious and tragic story. ŽD Having been involved with Greek drama in various ways, either translating or freely adapting them, Lada Kaštelan has returned to Alcestis again: what is this new Alcestis, which came out of your work on the text itself and in the process of making the performance, where Lada Kaštelan is also the dramaturg.

LP I met Lada while working on Medea based on her translation, and we later collaborated on Faust in the Centro Dramático Nacional in Madrid and on Richard III + II in the Slovene National Theatre Drama Ljubljana, which we both adapted for the stage. Her sensibility and understanding of theater and dramatic plot are very close to mine. We found each other in our mature creative years in a common wish to speak about themes, that touch us deeply. The manner with which Lada approaches ancient texts is very to close to my understanding of them. A poetics hidden in words stripped to the bone, words which sound as if they were written today, became the conceptional framework of the performance.

K. STEGNAR

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We read the famous Alcestis „under the veil“ (Jan Kott) today considering our personal experiences, searching for answers to the most crucial existential questions related to love, death, loss, relationships and society. Our Alcestis finds herself in a space in-between, where time stands still. She went to the chambers of the dead, but in an exstatic state, being dead she is able to consider life without herself … In a moment of truth she lifts her veil and recounts with her silence what everyone one of us anticipates.

Why does Alcestis give her life for the life of her husband? Is she the best wife with the worst husband or is something else in play? What is bravery, to leave or to stay? Did she actually come back to life? Our Admetus and Alcestis meet again, but the question is where?

ŽD Alcestis is cast by Katarina Stegnar, one of the leading actresses of the Slovene Mladinsko Theater. Alcestis is a stranger, but who are the strangers, especially in Dubrovnik, today?

LP Katarina Stegnar is an actress I adore, although I have never worked with her until now. As an actress she is a stranger in this town, as am I. Her performing habitus is extremely rich and diverse. I have been following her work from the very beginning: from exceptional performances, to her roles in the Slovene Mladinsko Theater in Ljubljana. I sensed that she must be „my“ Alcestis, so fragile, beautiful and vulnerable, but simultaneously incredibly strong and brave. Who are „yours“, who are „ours“ and who are „theirs“? What is the difference between one human and another? In our lives we meet certain people for a reason, some just in passing, and some remain with us for the rest of our lives. And even after death. This is what our performance is about.

ŽD Pandur.Theaters is one of the indisputable brands of the international theater scene of the last decades, and the performances directed by Tomaž Pandur in which you played a crucial role as dramaturg and producer, tour the stages of the world to this day. To what extent is Alcestis in your artistic concept connected to Tomaž Pandur’s theater, or does it conceptually and esthetically differ from it?

LP I worked with Tomaž for more than forty years, we grew up together artistically and developed our theatrical language. We created in an unceasing dialogue, both brought our most inner selves into the theater, always without compromise and with sincerity, so my independent works cannot be any different. In these last years I realized that the stage is the only space where I can and wish to create, and that I have much more say about the world we live in. Our performances made with Tomaž still travel the world and are making their marks, but I, alone, continue to work on new stories of my own, such as Alcestis, which speak of death, love, solitude and everything else, that only the stage can we communicate.

ŽD As an exceptionally devoted and succesfull artist in all your theatrical roles – as dramaturg, producer and director – is there a part of the work or a process in the theater you feel is yours above all, if it is even possible to split those apart at all?

LP After so many years, theater for me is a whole, a community, an unseparability. I had the experience of being on stage as well, as an actress, which is perhaps the most important when working on the other side of the stage. All roles in a certain way complement eachother in theater, but the most deciding is the passion for the work we do. Of course proffesionalism as well, which on our stages today is unfortunately in short supply. Simply put theater is a whole for me, apart from the role you perform. I experience working on a performance in a comprehensive, responsible and respectful manner towards all coworkers. We are able to achieve authentic creations only through mutual engagement. Then in this „miraculous coal-mine of souls“ anything is possible. ŽD The Slovene Association of Dramatic Artists presented you an award for your life’s work in 2018. Does this award signify something special in a series of awards you received in the past decades? What would you point out as specifically significant in your rich carrier?

LP The greatest award I received during this long period working in theater, is my extended theatrical family. This is

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a web of relations, which we established with Tomaž across a wide geographical space, on several continents. And the feeling, that our theater left its mark in people we touched, is what enables me to go on. ŽD What are your upcoming theatrical endeavors?

LP After Dubrovnik I’m directing a contemporary play in Teatro Español in Madrid – Echoes by Henry Naylor with two amazing Spanish actresses. There are several other projects in motion, but I don’t know which will actually materialize. In this stage in life for the sake of my peace of mind, I don’t have to work all time or at any cost for that matter. I am confident that projects will come to me spontaneously, on their own.

K. STEGNAR

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H. SEBASTIJAN, V. JURČIĆ, M.STANIĆ

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I. KOVAČ, K. STEGNAR, H. SEBASTIJAN, G. ŠOLETIĆ, B. BERIBAKA

ALCESTIS

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LADA KAŠTELAN

NA EURIPIDOVOM TRAGU, BIL�EŠKE

Euripid, najmlađi od sačuvanih grčkih tragičkih pjesnika, rođen je u Ateni, 485./484. pr. Kr., a smrt ga je zatekla u Peli, 406. pr. Kr., na dvoru makedonskog kralja Arhelaja, kamo se navodno povukao ogorčen zbog neuspjeha. Na dramskim je natjecanjima pobijedio samo četiri puta, od toga jedanput posmrtno (Eshil trinaest, Sofoklo dvadeset puta). Prema antičkim izvorima, Euripid je napisao devedeset i dvije drame, od kojih je osamdesetak poznato po naslovu. Očuvalo ih se u cijelosti devetnaest, među kojima Res vjerojatno nije autentičan; dio izgubljenih tragedija poznat je po ulomcima. Očuvani korpus dvojakog je podrijetla: u prvu skupinu pripada deset kronološki poredanih tragedija, očito se radi o antologiji: Alkestida, Medeja, Hipolit, Andromaha, Hekuba, Trojanke, Feničanke, Orest, Bakhe i Res. Drame iz druge skupine svrstane su alfabetski i sačuvane slučajno, kao dio nekog izdanja sabranih djela iz XIV. stoljeća: Elektra, Helena, Heraklo, Heraklova djeca, Hiketide, Ifigenija u Aulidi, Ifigenija na Tauridi, Ion i Kiklop (satirska igra).

Aristotel Sofoklu pripisuje izjavu da on sâm prikazuje ljude onakvima kakvi bi trebali biti, a Euripid onakvima kakvi jesu, a za Euripida tvrdi da je najtragičkiji od svih pjesnika, tragikotatos ton poieton. Ma što to značilo. Možda je upravo to razlogom nevelikog broja nagrada i velike naknadne popularnosti.

Euripidova Alkestida praizvedena je u Ateni prije dvije tisuće četiristo pedeset sedam godina, kao četvrti dio tragičke tetralogije (od koje je jedina sačuvana), na mjestu rezerviranom za satirsku igru. Žanr je to koji je sačuvao formu tragedije, ali je pomoću kora sastavljenog od satira donosio komičko rasterećenje nakon tri tragedije pune sukoba, (samo)ubojstava i nerješivih etičkih dilema. Samo, Alkestida nema satirski kor, ona uopće ne pruža nikakvo rasterećenje nego postavlja nemoguća pitanja i nimalo nije nalik onome što je sačuvano i što se zna o satirskim igrama, kao da je bila podmetnuta na mjesto koje joj ne pripada. Zbunjuje, izmiče žanrovskom definiranju i izaziva jako različite interpretacije, kako književnoteorijske tako i umjetničke. U njenoj građi sadržana je legenda ukorijenjena u čovjekovom suočavanju s vlastitom smrtnošću, rasprostranjena u mnogim narodnim predajama širom svijeta (kako je pokazao veliki klasični filolog Albin Lesky). Njezin najjednostavniji oblik glasi ovako: „Smrt dolazi uzeti život nekog mladog čovjeka, muškarca ili žene, najčešće kraljevskog podrijetla, i pristaje umjesto njegovog/njezinog života uzeti zamjenu, samo nitko drugi, pa ni roditelji

42 43

posve drukčiji od odnosa prema drugim Euripidovim dramama, daleko osobniji i intimniji. Razlog zašto joj se vraćam 2019. godine, kao i moj odnos prema njoj posve su drugačiji nego tadašnji, ali također vrlo osobni i intimni. Pitanja koja otvara ta zagonetna, neobična i nemoguća priča ista su, ali tadašnja i sadašnja ja nismo iste, ne samo zbog taloga vremena.

Priča o Alkestidi je kao neki eksperiment koji daje različite rezultate, uvijek nužno kontaminiran osobnošću onoga tko ga provodi. Što bi bilo kad bi se moglo ono što se ne može? Iz smrti nema povratka. U grčkom mitu živi se ponekad mogu spustiti u Podzemlje i vratiti se, kao Heraklo, Odisej i Orfej. Jedino, ne smiju tamo jesti nar, voće podzemnog svijeta, zabranjeno živima. Ako ga kušaju, vezani su za Had zauvijek. Alkestida i Admet na kraju se ponovno sastaju, samo – gdje? I zašto zapravo Alkestida daje svoj život u zamjenu za Admetov? Ne mora. Svi koji se bave Alkestidom tragaju za svojim odgovorom na to pitanje, u sebi ili oko sebe. Koji je moj? U tom njezinom činu nekad sam vidjela bijeg od života, glasnijom od svega drugog činila mi se njezina šutnja po neželje-nom povratku čovjeku s kojim je ne veže ljubav nego brak. Jedino što sada vidim je bijeg od gubitka bezuvjetno voljene osobe. Raniji, dobrovoljni odlazak onamo kamo ćemo ionako doći svi, bez obzira kako to zvali i zamišljali. Strah od života i strah od gubitka doduše i jesu jedno, lice i naličje iste stvari, pitanje je samo o tome u koju se stranu upire pogled. Livija Pandur i ja u ovoj predstavi gledamo u istom smjeru.

ne žele dati svoj život. Žrtvuje se jedino žena za muškarca kojeg voli, ili muškarac za ženu koju voli.“ U antičkoj Grčkoj ta se legenda vezala uz mitske priče o bogu Apolonu i kralju Admetu, tako je bilo već i u ranijoj, izgubljenoj, Frinihovoj Alkestidi, o kojoj imamo svjedočanstva, ne i tekst.

Postoji dvadesetak dramskih i isto toliko opernih verzija Alkestide, a česta je inspiracija i pjesnicima i likovnim umjetnicima. Te su verzije posve raznorodne, od burlesknih do tragičnih, s muzikom ili bez, spomenimo (kronološki) neke od njih: Hans Sachs, Die getreue Fraw Alcest mit ihrem getrewen Mann Admeto (1551.); Alexandre Hardy, Alceste ou La fidélité (1624.); Aurelio Aureli, Antigone delusa d’Alceste (1664.); Jean-Baptiste Lully – Philippe Quinault, Alceste ou le triomphe d’Hercule (1674.), opera; Georg Friedrich Händel – Nicola Haym, Admeto, re di Tessaglia (1719.), opera; Georg Friedrich Händel – Tobias Smollett, Alceste (1750.), opera; Christoph Willibald Gluck – Ranieri de’ Calzabigi, Alceste (1767.); Christopher Martin Wieland – Anton Schweizer, Alceste (1773.), opera; Issachar Styrke, Alcestis Burlesqued (1816.); Francis Talfourd, Alcestis, The Original Strong-Minded Woman: A Classical Burlesque, A Most Shameless Misinterpretation of the Greek Drama of Euripides (1850.); [Anonymous] Alcestis or Euripides Destroyed (1866.); William Morris, The Love of Alcestis (1868.); Robert Browning, Balaustion’s Adventure (1871.); Francis Turner Palgrave, Alcestis (1871.); Hugo von Hoffmansthal, Alkestis (1893.); Reiner Maria Rilke, Alkestis (1907.); Gustav Renner, Alkeste (1911.); Marguerite Yourcenar, Le mystère d’Alceste (1944.); Thomas Stearns Eliot, The Cocktail Party (1949.); Thornton Wilder, Alcestiade (1955.); Robert Wilson – Heiner Müller, Alcestis (1986.) i posljednja, ali nikako ne najmanje važna, verzija Teda Hughesa, Alcestis (1999.).

Nekoliko sam se puta krajem osamdesetih i početkom devedesetih godina prošlog stoljeća intenzivno i neposredno bavila nekim Euripidovim dramama, po svome izboru. Feničanke, Helena, Ifigenija na Aulidi, Hekuba i Trojanke činile su mi se kao da su napisane upravo tada, taj gorki antički pjesnik krize i kaosa, kako Euripida ponekad nazivaju, (bio) mi je idealan sugovornik u našim krizama i kaosu. Dala sam si dopuštenje da njegovim tekstovima slobodno pristupim i učinim svima vidljivim ono što ja u njima vidim.

U to sam vrijeme, predratne 1989., prvi put „posvojila“ i Alkestidu. Razlog zašto me privukla i moj odnos prema njoj bili su

45

ON THE TRAIL OF EURIPIDES, NOTES

Euripides, the youngest of the preserved Greek tragic poets, was born in Athens, 485/484 BC and died in Pella, 406 BC, on the court of the Macedonian king Archelaus, where he eventu-ally sought refuge enraged for his lack of success. On dramatic contests he won only four times, among which once posthumously (Aeschylus won thirteen times, Sophocles twenty times). According to ancient sources, Euripides wrote ninety-two plays, among which eighty are known by their titles only. Nineteen are preserved entirely, among those Rhesus probably isn’t authentic; a part of the lost tragedies is known only from fragments. The preserved corpus is divided into two categories: in the first group there are ten chronologically ordered tragedies, obviously an anthology: Alcestis, Medea, Hippolytus, Hecuba, The Trojan Women, The Phoenicians, Orestes, Bacchae and Rhesus. The plays from the second group are ordered alphabetically and were preserved by chance, as a part of some edition of collected works from the XIV century: Electra, Helen, Heracles, Children of Hera-cles, The Suppliants, Iphigenia in Aulis, Iphigenia in Tauris, Ion and Cyclops (a satirical play).

Aristotle reports how Sophocles claimed that he depicted people as they should be, while Euripides depicts them as they are, and considers Euripides the most tragic of all poets, tragikotatos ton poieton. Whatever this may mean. Perhaps this is the reason for such a small number of awards and his enormous posthumous popularity.

Alcestis by Euripides was first performed in Athens two thousand four hundred seventy-five years ago, as the fourth part of a tragic tetralogy (of which it is the only one preserved), and set in the place usually reserved for satirical plays. This is a genre which kept the form of a tragedy, but its choir composed of satyrs brought comic relief after three tragedies full of struggle, murder, suicide and unresolvable ethic dilemmas. Except that Alcestis has no choir of satyrs, it doesn’t offer any relief, but poses impossible questions and isn’t in the least similar to anything that is preserved or known about satirical plays, as if it was deliberately out of place. It confuses, evades definitions of genre and engenders very different interpretations, artistic as well as theoretic. Its plot is formed by a legend rooted in man’s coming to terms with his own mortality, we find it in several folk tales across the world (as shown by the great philologist Albin Lesky). Its simplest form goes something like this: „Death comes to take

LADA KAŠTELAN

46 47

sometimes referred to, was my ideal interlocutor in times of our chaos and. I gave myself permission to approach his plays with complete freedom and to make what I saw in them visible to all.

During these years, before the war in 1989, I adapted Alcestis for the first time as well. The reason it attracted me, as well as my relation to it, was completely different from any relation I had to other plays by Euripides, it was far more personal and intimate. The reason I came back to it in 2019, as well as my relation to it, are completely different than before, but very personal and intimate in a similar manner. The questions this complex, unusual and impossible story poses are the same as they were then, but I am not the same, and not just because of time that passed.

The story of Alcestis is like an experiment which gives different results every time as if it would be contaminated by the personality of the experimenter. What would be if the impossible was possible. There is no return from death. In Greek myth the living can sometimes descent to the Underworld and come back, like Heracles, Ulysses, Orpheus. They are forbidden to eat pomegranates, the fruit of the underworld, which is off-limits to the living. If they taste it, they are forever bound to Hades. But Alcestis and Admetus meet again in the end, but where? And why does Alcestis among everyone else give her life in exchange for Admetus’? She doesn’t have to. Everyone researching Alcestis is searching for this answer, in themselves and around them. What is my answer? In her act I sometimes saw an attempt to escape from life, the loudest seemed her silence after an unwanted return to a man, to which she is not connected by love, but by marriage. The only thing I see now is escape from the loss of someone she unconditionally loves. A former, benign descent to a place to which we will all return either way, regardless of how we name or imagine it. The fear of life and the fear of loss are nonetheless one and the same, the face and form of the same thing, it depends only to which side we point our gaze. With this performance Livija Pandur and myself gaze in the same direction.

the life of a young person, male or female, often of royal descent, and accepts to take in his or her stead the life of another, but no one else, not even a member of his or her family is willing to give his or her life. Only the woman or man in love with this person sacrifices him- or herself.” In ancient Greece this legend was tied to mythical stories connected to the god Apollo and king Admetus, as related in a former, lost version of Alcestis by Phrynichus, of which only eyewitness accounts remain, but not the text itself.

There are twenty dramatic and twenty opera adaptions of Alcestis, and it served as frequent inspiration to poets and painters. These version are completely diverse, from burlesques to tragedies, with music or without, just to mention a few (chronologically): Hans Sachs, Die getreue Fraw Alcest mit ihrem getrewen Mann Admeto (1551), Alexandre Hardy, Alceste ou La fidélité (1624), Aurelio Aureli, Antigone delusa d’Alceste (1664), Jean-Baptiste Lully / Philippe Quinault, Alceste ou le triomphe d’Hercule (1674), opera, George Friedrich Händel / Nicola Haym, Admeto, re di Tessaglia (1719), opera, George Friedrich Händel, George Friedrich /Smolett, Tobias, Alceste (1750), opera, Christoph Willibald Gluck / Ranieri de’ Calzabigi, Alceste (1767), Christopher Martin Wieland / Anton Schweizer, Alceste (1773), opera, Issachar Styrke, Alcestis Burlesqued (1816), Francis Talfourd, Alcestis, The Original Strong-Minded Woman: A Classical Burlesque, A Most Shameless Misinterpretation of the Greek Drama of Euripides (1850), [Anonymous] Alcestis or Euripides Destroyed (1866), William Morris, The Love of Alcestis (1868), Robert Browning, Balaustion’s Adventure (1871), Francis Turner Palgrave, Alcestis (1871), Hugo von Hoffmansthal, Alkestis (1893), Reiner Maria Rilke, Alkestis (1907), Gustav Renner, Alkeste (1911), Yourcenar, Marguerite, Le mystère d’Alceste (1944), Eliot, Thomas Stearns, The Cocktail Party (1949), Thornton Wilder, Alcestiade (1955), Wilson, Robert / Müller, Heiner, Alcestis (1986) and the last, but not least important version by Teda Hughesa, Alcestis (1999).

I have on numerous occasions in the late eighties and in the early nineties of the last century intensely and directly worked on some of the plays by Euripides, on my own account and selection. The Phoenicians, Helen, Iphigenia in Aulis, Hecuba and The Women of Troy seemed as if they were written just for that time, this bitter ancient poet of crisis and chaos, as Euripides was

4948 ALKESTIDA

I. KOVAČ, G. ŠOLETIĆ, N. LASIĆ, M.STANIĆ

ALCESTIS

5150 ALKESTIDA

N. LASIĆ, Z. ČOTIĆ, M. STANIĆ, K. STEGNAR, H. SEBASTIJAN, B. BERIBAKA, V. JURČIĆ, I . KOVAČ

ALCESTIS

53

ALKESTIDALADA KAŠTELAN PREMA EURIPIDU

OSOBEAlkestidaAdmetHerakloAdmetova majka

GOSTI Prijateljica Admetove majkeNjezina kćiAdmetov prijateljAlkestidina prijateljicaNepoznati muškarac

Tekst predstaveKMD Dubrovnik, sezona 2019./2020.

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Dolaze prijateljica Admetove majke i njezina kći.

— PRI�ATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Čudna neka tišina.

Kći ne odgovara. Dođe neki nepoznati muškarac.

— PRI�ATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Čudna neka tišina.

— NEPOZNATI MUŠKARAC Čudna.

Zašute. Dođe Admetov prijatelj.

— PRI�ATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Neka čudna tišina?

— ADMETOV PRI�ATEL� Čudna.

— NEPOZNATI MUŠKARAC Baš čudna.

— PRI�ATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Sve šuti. Čitava Admetova kuća šuti.

— ADMETOV PRI�ATEL� Zaista.

— PRI�ATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Neobično.

Opet šute.

— PRI�ATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Kad bolje promisliš, brak, to je više tuga nego veselje.

— ADMETOV PRI�ATEL� Brak? Zbilja tako misliš?

— PRI�ATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE U braku ima više boli nego sreće. I prije sam to mislila, a tek sad, kad vidim ovo.

Nelagoda. Tišina.

— PRI�ATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Baš čudna tišina.

— ADMETOV PRI�ATEL� Čudna.

— NEPOZNATI MUŠKARAC Čudna.

— PRI�ATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Ne čuje se ni plač.

— ADMETOV PRI�ATEL� Ne.

— KĆI Znači, nije svršeno.

— NEPOZNATI MUŠKARAC Bit će.

— PRI�ATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Zar baš nikoga nema da nam kaže? Gdje su svi?

— KĆI Dati život za muža, nije li to veličanstveno? Najbolje što jedna žena može učiniti. Tako plemenito. Nesebično. Požrtvovno. Divno, divno.

1 I Ž IVA I MRTVA

K. STEGNAR

54

— PRI�ATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Možda još diše.

— KĆI Zar nije svejedno?

— ADMETOV PRI�ATEL� Da.

— KĆI Svejedno. Svejedno je.

— NEPOZNATI MUŠKARAC Mrtva je ona.

— PRI�ATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Čini mi se da netko jeca.

— KĆI Ne. Ne. Ne.

— NEPOZNATI MUŠKARAC Admet ima najbolju ženu na svijetu.

— ADMETOV PRI�ATEL� Imao je.

— PRI�ATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Da je gotovo, ne bi bilo ovako tiho.

— ADMETOV PRI�ATEL� Tko zna.

Dođe Alkestidina prijateljica. Svi šute.

— ADMETOV PRI�ATEL� Čudna neka tišina.

— PRI�ATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Baš čudna.

— ALKESTIDINA PRI�ATEL�ICA Možda su je već iznijeli. I sahranili.

— ADMETOV PRI�ATEL� Admet? On je ne bi sahranio tajno.

— KĆI Sprovod će sigurno biti ogroman. Za takvu ženu sigurno.

— ADMETOV PRI�ATEL� Nema sumnje.

— PRI�ATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Možda smo trebali odjenuti crninu.

— ALKESTIDINA PRI�ATEL�ICA Asklepije, Apolonov sin, on je umio dovoditi ljude iz Podzemlja. Oni, koje je Smrt već ukrotila, ustajali su, kažu.

— NEPOZNATI MUŠKARAC Dok ga nije Zeusova munja spalila.

— ALKESTIDINA PRI�ATEL�ICA Da.

— NEPOZNATI MUŠKARAC Orfej, nije uspio. Nema lijeka. Od tog zla nema lijeka.

— KĆI A evo, Admet se spasio. Kad ga Apolon tako voli.

— ADMETOV PRI�ATEL� Svi vole tog čovjeka.

— KĆI Njegova majčica nije htjela dati svoj život umjesto njegovog.

— ADMETOV PRIJATELJ Istina, nije.

— PRI�ATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Tko bi htio sam, od svoje volje, sići u mrak.

— ADMETOV PRI�ATEL� Alkestida. Sama je htjela.

— KĆI Aha. Sama. Baš.

— NEPOZNATI MUŠKARAC Da. Sama je htjela.

— ALKESTIDINA PRI�ATEL�ICA Sama se ponudila. Nitko drugi nije htio. Admet je tražio, posvuda.

— KĆI A što, Smrti je svejedno koga odvodi?

— NEPOZNATI MUŠKARAC Da. Svejedno.

— KĆI Svejedno?

— NEPOZNATI MUŠKARAC Svejedno.

— ALKESTIDINA PRI�ATEL�ICA Netko jeca?

— ADMETOV PRI�ATEL� Čini ti se.

— PRI�ATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Možda još nije vrijeme.

— NEPOZNATI MUŠKARAC Vrijeme je. Danas, baš danas.

— ALKESTIDINA PRI�ATEL�ICA Vidim je. Vidim je kako pere svoje bijelo tijelo vodom s izvora. Kako iz cedrovog

kovčega vadi najljepšu haljinu, i nakit. Kako se polako oblači. Kako moli. Kako pred svaki oltar u Admetovom domu polaže grančicu mirte, trga njene listove, dugo, dugo. Bez suza. Bez plača. Lijepa kao uvijek. Onda liježe u krevet. Ustaje. Opet liježe. Opet ustaje. Opet liježe.

— NEPOZNATI MUŠKARAC Nema tu pomoći.

— KĆI Možda se ipak nešto dogodi.

— NEPOZNATI MUŠKARAC Alkestida, ona je danas i živa i mrtva.

— ADMETOV PRI�ATEL� I živa i mrtva.

— NEPOZNATI MUŠKARAC Da.

— KĆI Najbolja žena na svijetu.

— PRI�ATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE I živa i mrtva.

— KĆI Svejedno.

Odlaze.

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58 59

— ALKESTIDA Sonce.Bleda dnevna svetloba.Vrtinci na nebu. Oblak, ki drsi. Hitro.Hitro.Vidim. Vse vidim. Otroštvo.V moji domovini, v Jolku, zidovi mojega doma.Danes je ta dan.Jaz grem.Prva grem. Vidim čoln. Vidim čoln na jezeru. Dvoje vesel. In Harona, kliče me, mene kliče, zakaj se obotavljaš, pohiti, kaj čakaš.Vodi me, nekdo me vodi.Vidim ga.K mrtvim me vodi.V sobe mrtvih.Črne oči ima. Sijoče.Krila ima.Gleda me. Had.Pusti me. Prihajam. Pusti me.Počasi.Počasi. Moja otroka nimata več matere.Sama bosta ostala. Njej zvestega moža. Njemu dobro ženo. To si želim.Admet.Poslušaj me, še malo.Nekaj bi ti rada povedala.Tako sem hotela. Ni mi bilo treba. Ni mi bilo treba umreti zate.Lahko bi nekomu drugemu postala žena.

2 �A I D E M PRVA

— ALKESTIDA Sunce. Blijeda svjetlost danja. Vrtlozi na nebu. Oblak koji klizi. Brzo. Brzo. Vidim, sve vidim.Djetinjstvo. U mojoj zemlji, u Jolku, zidovi moga doma. Danas je taj dan.Ja idem. Idem prva. Vidim čamac. Vidim čamac na vodi. S dva vesla. Haron ga vozi, zove me, mene zove, zašto oklijevaš, žuri, što čekaš. Vodi me, vodi me netko. Ja ga vidim. K mrtvima me vodi.U sobe mrtvih. Ima crne oči. Sjajne. Ima krila. Mene gleda. Had. Pusti me. Dolazim ja. Pusti. Kakav je taj put na koji krećem. Polako, polako. Moja djeca više nemaju majku. Ostat će sami. Njoj, vrijednog muža. Dobru ženu njemu. To želim. Admete. Slušaj me, još malo. Želim ti nešto reći. Tako sam htjela. Nisam morala. Mogla sam i ne umrijeti za tebe. Drugome postati žena.

In živela dalje. Nisem hotela, brez tebe.Brez tebe nočem. Nič nočem brez tebe. Nič.Tvoja starša, izdala sta te.Oče in mati. Oba.Nista hotela tja namesto svojega edinega sina, čeprav se njun čas izteka.Če bi hotela, jaz ne bi ostala brez tebe. Ti ne bi ostal brez mene.Nekdo hoče, da je tako.Tudi prav.Lahko jaz.Spodaj je tiho.Voda spodaj ne šumi.Ne slišiš vesla, ko pluješ.Ne sanjaš. Nič.Samo za eno stvar te prosim.Ne poroči se ponovno. Ne, Admet. Da bi neka druga z rokami dotikala tvojih in mojih otrok.Ne, prosim te. Ne.Jaz hočem tja.Jaz moram tja.Ne jutri, ne nekoč, takoj.Zdaj.Pred tabo.Prva hočem tja. Kličejo me. Čakajo.Čas pa ... tolaži.Ko umreš, si nič.Nič.Grem.Ni me več.Ni me več.Grem. Prva.

Živjeti dalje. Nisam htjela, bez tebe.Neću bez tebe. Ništa neću bez tebe. Ništa.Tvoji roditelji, izdali su te. I otac i majka. Nisu htjeli onamo, umjesto svoga jedinog sina, a vrijeme im je. A da su oni htjeli ja ne bih ostala bez tebe. Ti ne bi ostao bez svoje žene. Netko od bogova hoće da bude ovako. Pa neka. Mogu ja. Dolje je tiho. Voda dolje ne šumi. Ne čuješ vesla, kad ploviš. Ne sanjaš ništa. Molim te samo jedno za uzvrat. Nemoj se ponovno ženiti. Nemoj Admete. Da neka druga rukama dotiče tvoju i moju djecu. Ne čini to, molim te. Ja želim onamo. Ja moram onamo. Ne sutra, ili jednom, odmah. Sad. Prije tebe.Hoću tamo prva. Zovu me. Čekaju. A vrijeme, tješi. Kad umreš, nisi ništa.Ništa. Idem. Nema me više. Nema me više.Idem.Prva.

60 61

Admet, sam.

— ADMET Ženo moja. Imao sam te živu. I mrtva ćeš biti moja jedina žena. Nijedna druga. Nijedna druga Tesalka neće me zvati mužem. Nema takve, nije se još rodila. Tako plemenita, lijepa kao ti. Dvoje djece imam, to je dovoljno. Samo da mi bogovi daju da u njima uživam. Kad mi već tebe ne daju. Plakat ću za tobom, ženo, dok bude života u meni. Ne jedanput godišnje, kao drugi. Svoju ću majku vječno mrziti. Voljela me je na riječima, a ne na djelu. Ti si me spasila. Tvoj život umjesto moga. Takva žena, kao ti, a ja sam te izgubio. Nikad, nikad više gozbe, pijanke, gosti u mojoj kući, plesovi. Neće se čuti muzika. Nikad više. Ti si svo moje veselje odnijela sa sobom. Dat ću nekom vještom umjetniku da mi načini tvoj kip. Posve tebi nalik. Ležat će sa mnom u postelji. Grlit ću ga. Milovati. Zazivat ću tvoje ću ime i držat ću te u naručju, premda te više nema. Nema. Gorko je to veselje, ali ipak, bit će mi lakše. Dolazit ćeš mi u snu. Tako ću te barem noću gledati. Da mogu pjevati kao Orfej i svojom pjesmom začarati podzemne bogove, izveo bih ja tebe iz Hada.

Heraklo priđe Admetu.

— ADMET Heraklo.

— HERAKLO Nešto se dogodilo? Djeca su ti dobro? To je glavno.

— ADMET Dobro su.

— HERAKLO Samo neka njih bog čuva. Majka? Bila je već u godinama.

— ADMET Majka je živa.

— HERAKLO Alkestida?

Admet ne odgovara.

— HERAKLO Mrtva?

— ADMET I jest i nije.

— HERAKLO Ne razumijem.

— ADMET Ti ne znaš?

— HERAKLO Znam da je odlučila umrijeti umjesto tebe.

— ADMET Onda?

3 N I� E D NA D RU GA

4 NEKA STRANKIN�A

Čekaj me tamo. Doći ću ti kad umrem. Opremi naš dom, gdje ćemo zauvijek zajedno prebivati. Ne želim ni mrtav biti bez tebe. Tebe što si mi jedina vjerna.Priredit ću velik sprovod. Zaslužila je da joj odajemo počasti. Žena koja je umjesto mene htjela umrijeti, jedina.

— HERAKLO Ne znam tuguješ li unaprijed.

— ADMET Nije li isto?

— HERAKLO Biti živ i biti mrtav.

— ADMET To je moja žena umrla. Ne moja žena. Ne ona. Neka strankinja, koju sam primio u kuću

— HERAKLO Strankinja. I ti sad tuguješ za njom.

— ADMET Nije imala nikog osim mene. Osim nas.

— HERAKLO Strankinja?

Admet kimne glavom.

— HERAKLO I, sad je pokapaš.

— ADMET Da. I moja djeca su voljela tu ženu. A sada, nema je više.

— HERAKLO Šteta. Da barem nisam došao baš sada, Admete.

— ADMET Zašto to kažeš?

— HERAKLO Odsjest ću kod nekog drugog.

— ADMET Nemoj mi to učiniti. Molim te.

— HERAKLO Što će ti sada gost. Morate je pokopati. Tu strankinju.

— ADMET Molim te.

— HERAKLO Nema smisla.

— ADMET Mrtvi su mrtvi, Heraklo.

— HERAKLO Bit ću ti zahvalan ako me pustiš da odem

— ADMET Ostani. Molim te.

— HERAKLO Neću smetati?

— ADMET Ne.

— HERAKLO Siguran si?

— ADMET Ne želim da ideš nekom drugom. Ne dopuštam. Ti si moj gost.

— HERAKLO Dobro, kad hoćeš.

— ADMET Sigurno si gladan i umoran.

— HERAKLO Da, jesam. Hvala ti, Admete.

62 63

Heraklo ostane sam. Pojavi se Alkestida, mrtva. Heraklo je vidi. Jedini.

Okupljanje prije ispraćaja, prvo dolaze žene.

— ALKESTIDINA PRIJATEL�ICA Jadna ta njihova djeca.

— PRIJATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Jadna. Ostati ovako bez majke, strašno

— ALKESTIDINA PRIJATEL�ICA Što su oni krivi?

— PRIJATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Baš strašno. Sigurno misle da je otputovala nekamo.

— KĆI Tko zna što oni misle. Kažu da su stalno ponavljali: mama je otišla dolje, mama je otišla dolje, mama je otišla dolje. Dolje. Dolje??!

— PRIJATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Čula sam da je bilo užasno. Rastanak. Da ih je grlila kao luda, plakala, da se bacala po tlu, vikala, da ih je grčevito stiskala, a sirota djeca su se tako uplašila da su pobjegla iz sobe. Onda se stala rukovati, pozdravljati sa svima.

— ALKESTIDINA PRIJATEL�ICA Ne vjerujem.

— PRIJATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Tako sam čula.

— KĆI A Admet?

— ALKESTIDINA PRIJATEL�ICA To ne znam.

— KĆI Ostati bez takve žene, strašno.

— PRIJATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE S dvoje djece.

— ALKESTIDINA PRIJATEL�ICA Kažu da ga je preklinjala da se ne ženi ponovno. Što joj to sad koristi?

PRIJATELJICA ADMETOVE MAJKE Za djecu bi bilo bolje da dobiju novu majku što prije.

— KĆI Što prije? Da, da, Admet je još mlad, i bogat. Treba požuriti.

— PRIJATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Nitko ne traži da je zaboravi.

5 S U S R ET

6 NA�SLAVNI�A ŽENA

— ALKESTIDINA PRIJATEL�ICA Laodamija, Protesilajeva žena, kad je on poginuo, napravila je kip od voska, i spavala s njim. Sve dok joj ga otac nije bacio u vatru. A ona se bacila za njim.

— KĆI Spalila se?

— ALKESTIDINA PRIJATEL�ICA Da.

— KĆI I?

— ALKESTIDINA PRIJATEL�ICA Ništa, spalila se. Ni Orfej nije uspio. Nema povratka.

— PRIJATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Ovako ostaviti vlastitu djecu. Bolje da ih je povela sa sobom.

— KĆI Povela sa sobom? Kao da nemaju oca

— PRIJATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE To je drugo. Morala je misliti na svoju djecu, morala.

— KĆI A Admetova majka, ona nije morala misliti na svoga sina? Što si stariji, to više želiš živjeti, izgleda. Pelija, Alkestidin otac, htio se pomladiti, sjećate se?

— PRIJATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Ne spominji to. Grozno je.

— ALKESTIDINA PRIJATEL�ICA Grozno, grozno.

— KĆI Vidio je kako Medeja u svoj čarobni kotao stavlja starog ovna, a iz njega iskače mlado janje. Svidjelo mu se to.

— ALKESTIDINA PRIJATEL�ICA Joj da, Medeja. Ta odvratna strankinja, odvratna. Tamo, u svojoj Kolhidi, ubila je i raskomadala svog rođenog brata. Samo da se dočepa Jazona. A onda su otišli u Jolk i morali se riješiti i Pelije.

— KĆI Nagovorila je Pelijine kćeri da pripreme ocu kotao.

— ALKESTIDINA PRIJATEL�ICA Za pomlađivanje.

— KĆI Da, da, za pomlađivanje. A on je sam, rado, ušao.

— ALKESTIDINA PRIJATEL�ICA Sve osim Alkestide.

— PRIJATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Sve osim Alkestide? Zbilja?

— ALKESTIDINA PRIJATEL�ICA Nije htjela sudjelovati u tome sa svojim sestrama.

— PRIJATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE U kuri pomlađivanja?

— ALKESTIDINA PRIJATEL�ICA Nije. Tko zna zašto.

— PRIJATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Misliš da je znala što će se dogoditi?

— ALKESTIDINA PRIJATEL�ICA Kažu da je danima plakala nakon što su sahranili oca.

— KĆI Skuhanog.

— PRIJATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Molim te.

— KĆI Dobro začinjenog.

— PRIJATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Molim te.

— KĆI Sigurno su ga dobro promiješale.

— PRIJATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Molim te!

— KĆI Admetova majka bi se isto odmah dala skuhati, za mladost.

— ALKESTIDINA PRIJATEL�ICA Isti čas. Nema sumnje.

— PRIJATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Admet bi je rado promiješao, čini se. Ne razgovaraju, znaš. A gdje su sad te Alkestidine sestre?

— ALKESTIDINA PRIJATEL�ICA Svaka na svojoj strani. Razbježale su se.

— PRIJATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Dosta razumljivo.

— ALKESTIDINA PRIJATEL�ICA Ni ne znaju za ovo s Alkestidom.

— KĆI Kako bi znale?

— PRIJATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Možda bolje. Ne znam. Taj otac. Te sestre.

Ona. Sve je to nekako neprirodno, ne znam. Sve nekako obrnuto.

— ALKESTIDINA PRIJATEL�ICA Obrnuto?

— PRIJATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Da. Ona baš i nije bila neka ljepotica, u stvari.

— ALKESTIDINA PRIJATEL�ICA Uvijek je šutjela. Teško je bilo razgovarati s njom, da.

— PRIJATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Nikad nisi znao što misli.

— ALKESTIDINA PRIJATEL�ICA Taj čudni pogled.

— PRIJATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE A onda, ovako nešto.

— ALKESTIDINA PRIJATEL�ICA Tko bi rekao.

— KĆI Ovako nešto veličanstveno. I jedinstveno.

— ALKESTIDINA PRIJATEL�ICA To sigurno.

— KĆI Tko ne bi htio naći takvu suprugu, koja će otići u smrt umjesto tebe. Takva se rijetko nalazi.

— ALKESTIDINA PRIJATEL�ICA Jako rijetko.

— KĆI O njoj treba pjesme pjevati.

64 65

— ALKESTIDINA PRIJATEL�ICA O da, bit će slavna, to da.

PRIJATELJICA ADMETOVE MAJKE Ma bila je lijepa, na neki način.

— ALKESTIDINA PRIJATEL�ICA Srednje.

— KĆI Prekrasna, prekrasna!

PRIJATELJICA ADMETOVE MAJKE Ruke su joj bile lijepe. I grudi. Drugo, tako-tako.

— ALKESTIDINA PRIJATEL�ICA Ali zato će postati slavna. Najslavnija od svih žena na svijetu.

— KĆI I mrtva.

— ALKESTIDINA PRIJATEL�ICA Sama je htjela.

Dolazi Admet. Gosti pjevaju u počast Alkestidi.

— ADMET Dragi prijatelji. Vaše mi je prisustvo dragocjeno u ovom teškom času. Hvala što ste se ovdje okupili da zajedno sa mnom ispratite moju voljenu ženu na njezino posljednje putovanje.

Dođe Admetova majka, prekine ga.

— ADMETOVA MA�KA Sine moj, suosjećam u tvojoj boli. Ostao si bez zaista vrijedne i mudre žene, svi to kažu. Težak gubitak, ali moraš ga podnijeti. Primi ovo od mene, neka bude sahranjeno s njom. A njoj treba odati sve počasti, njoj što je dala život za tebe. I tako ja nisam izgubila svoga sina i neću starjeti bez njega. Tim plemenitom činom uzvisila je cijeli ženski rod. Alkestida, spasila si njega, mene sačuvala od tuge. Nek ti je laka zemlja. Nek ti bude dobro u Hadovom podzemnom domu.

— ADMET Nisam te pozvao ovamo. I nije mi draga tvoja nazočnost. Ne trebam ništa od tebe, a nju neću s tvojim poklonima pokapati, budi sigurna. Onda kad je meni prijetila smrt, onda je trebalo da suosjećaš u mojoj boli, ali onda si jednostavno izmaknula, dopustila ovako

stara, da mlad čovjek umre, i sad ćeš je još oplakivati! Ne, nisi ti moja majka premda si me rodila! U mojim žilama mora da teče tuđa krv, ne tvoja. Pokazala si jasno kakva si i ne smatraj me više svojim sinom. Kako kukavički – u ovim godinama, na kraju života, nisi htjela, nisi se usudila umrijeti umjesto svoga rođenog sina, nego si pustila da to učini neka strankinja! Ona, ona je meni roditelj, ona jedina, ne ti! Imala si priliku učiniti nešto plemenito, žrtvovati za svoje dijete to malo života što ti je ostalo. I ja bih tako bio živ, i ona. Proživjela si sve što treba, u sreći i bogatstvu. Imaš kome ostaviti nasljedstvo. Što hoćeš više. Ne možeš reći da si me izdala zato što te nisam poštovao, to nije istina. Obožavao sam te. Obožavao. Obožavao. A ti mi ovako vraćaš ljubav. Hajde, požuri, napravi si još kojeg sina, da te njeguje kad onemoćaš, da te položi u grob kad umreš. Ja te neću sahraniti. Po tebi, sad bih već bio mrtav. A to što još gledam sunčevu svjetlost, to zahvaljujem samo njoj, i samo njoj dugujem ljubav.

— ADMETOVA MA�KA Što misliš, s kim razgovaraš? Ja sam ti majka. Misliš da možeš samo tako izgovoriti gomilu gluposti i mirno otići? Ovakva drskost, to je previše. Rodila sam te da budeš gospodar

7 MA�KA, N I�E HTJELA

66 67

ove kuće. Othranila sam te. Sama. Ali nisam dužna umirati umjesto tebe. Nigdje ne stoji da roditelji moraju umrijeti umjesto svoje djece, nema takvog zakona, niti u Grčkoj, niti bilo gdje drugdje. Svatko sam mora snositi ono što mu je u životu suđeno, bilo sreća, bilo nesreća. Sve što je trebalo, sve sam ti dala, sine. Vladar si. Bogat. Imaš moć. Čeka te još i moje nasljedstvo. Što sam ja to pogriješila? Što sam ti uskratila? Nemoj umrijeti za mene, niti ću ja za tebe. Veseli te gledati sunčevu svjetlost. Zašto misliš da tvoju majku to ne veseli? Život je kratak. Pod zemljom se boravi dugo, dugo. A ipak, tako je lijepo biti živ. Besramno si za sebe izborio pravo da odgodiš smrt i živiš preko onoga što ti je suđeno – tako što si ubio nju! Ako mene zoveš kukavicom, što si onda ti, gade jedan, koji si dopustio da žena umre umjesto tebe! Mudro si to riješio, nema što, svaki put kada Smrt dođe po tebe, jednostavno ćeš podmetnuti novu ženu! I ti, ti se usuđuješ vrijeđati one koji nisu htjeli umrijeti! Šuti bolje. Ako voliš svoj život, vole ga i drugi.

— ADMET Govori, govori samo. Istina te, vidim, peče. A sve što si rekla je krivo.

— ADMETOVA MA�KA Umrijeti za tebe bilo bi krivo.

— ADMET Nije isto kad umre stara žena i kad umre mladi muškarac!

— ADMETOVA MA�KA Nije?

— ADMET Nije! Ne, nije, ne!

— ADMETOVA MA�KA Život je samo jedan.

— ADMET A ti bi da tvoj bude dulji nego Zeusov, to znam.

— ADMETOVA MA�KA Oprosti, zašto ona leži mrtva?

— ADMET Ona leži mrtva zbog tvog kukavičluka.

— ADMETOVA MA�KA Ne, ne, zbog mene ne.

— ADMET Trebat ćeš ti mene još, starice.

— ADMETOVA MA�KA Morat ćeš se često ženiti, ako se ovako nastavi.

— ADMET Ti si kriva za ovo! Ti nisi htjela umrijeti!

— ADMETOVA MA�KA Što mogu, gode mi sunčeve zrake, sine.

— ADMET Kao da mi nisi majka.

— ADMETOVA MA�KA Barem sada ne pokapaš moj leš.

— ADMET O tebi se neće lijepo govoriti kad umreš.

— ADMETOVA MA�KA To mi je sasvim svejedno.

— ADMET Besramna si.

— ADMETOVA MA�KA A ova je bila luda.

— ADMET Idi! Ostavi me da je sahranim u miru.

— ADMETOVA MA�KA Idem, idem. Sahrani na miru onu koju si ubio.

— ADMET Gubi mi se s očiju, nestani! Od sada više nemaš sina, kao da me nisi rodila. U moju kuću više nećeš kročiti.

Admet otiđe, za njim svi ostali. Admetova majka ostane posljednja. Zatim ode i ona.

68 69

70 71

Alkestida i Heraklo.

— HERAKLO Bio sam u Podzemlju. Ni prvi ni zadnji, i drugi su bili. I vratio sam se. Jesam, da. I drugi su. Bolje da nisam. Imao sam zadatak iz Podzemlja odvesti Kerbera, Hadovog psa čuvara, Mislili su da neću uspjeti. Tamo Dolje, mrtvi su bježali od mene. Od Odiseja nisu bježali, kad je bio Dolje. Nisu htjeli sa mnom razgovarati. S Odisejem jesu. Učinio sam to. Izveo sam na zemlju Hadovog psa, čuvara Podzemnog svijeta. I vratio sam se među žive. Otišao sam svojoj kući. Tamo, u mojoj kući, čekali su me moji. Megara, moja žena, i moja djeca. Izljubili smo se. Sjeli smo jesti. I Odisej se isto vratio svojoj kući. Prepoznao ga nije nitko. Ni sin, ni žena, ni sluge. Nit itko drugi od ljudi. Gledali su ga u oči, vidjeli nisu ništa. Slušali njegove riječi, značile nisu ništa. Nitko, nitko od ljudi, ni sin, ni žena, ni sluge. A pas, njegov pas, pas Argos je umro,

Okupljaju se svi.

— PRI�ATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Dakle, nečuveno.

— ADMETOV PRI�ATEL� Misliš, ono s majkom?

— PRI�ATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE I to, i to.

— ALKESTIDINA PRI�ATEL� ICA Da, bilo je dosta neugodno.

— PRI�ATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Kao da je poludio.

— KĆI Kakav je to čovjek? Tko je to?

— ADMETOV PRI�ATEL� Ne znam. Admet ga je primio u kuću dok se još nije ni ohladila.

— ALKESTIDINA PRI�ATEL�ICA Meni se on čini sasvim u redu.

— PRI�ATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE To je sigurno netko iz mladosti.

— ADMETOV PRI�ATEL� Admet je rekao – nikad, nikad više gozbe u mojoj kući, nikad… a sad!

— PRI�ATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE A sad gle ovo!

— KĆI Alkestida se ne bi ljutila.

— ALKESTIDINA PRI�ATEL� ICA Ne bi? Ona?

8 POVRATAK KUĆ I

9 KAKAV J E TO ČOVJ E K

pas je umro od sreće, mahnuo repom i mrtav ostao ležat u gnoju. Nije mu uspio prići. Od sreće, kad se Odisej vratio, kada se divni Odisej vratio svojoj kući. A ja, ja sam ubio svoju ženu i djecu, kad sam se vratio kući. Zaklao sam ih sve, dok je hrana još bila na stolu. Nožem. I ne znam zašto. Znam da su oni mrtvi. A ja?

— KĆI A tko je ovaj tu?

— NEPOZNATI MUŠKARAC Taj čovjek, to je Heraklo.

— KĆI To je Heraklo?

— ALKESTIDINA PRI�ATEL� ICA Slavni Heraklo?

— NEPOZNATI MUŠKARAC Da, heroj. Heraklo. To je on.

— KĆI Mislila sam da je taj odavno mrtav.

— PRI�ATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Ma ne verujem da je to Heraklo.

— NEPOZNATI MUŠKARAC On je.

— PRI�ATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Što se sve priča o njemu, uh.

— KĆI Što?

— ADMETOV PRI�ATEL� Strašne stvari, baš strašne.

— KĆI Ma što? Što? Ja znam za onih dvanaest veličanstvenih pothvata.

— PRI�ATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Bolje da ne znaš.

— ADMETOV PRI�ATEL� Bolje.

— KĆI Što?

— ADMETOV PRI�ATEL� Zaklao je svoju ženu i djecu.

— KĆI Molim!?

— PRI�ATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Nožem.

— ADMETOV PRI�ATEL� Nekažnjeno. Nastavio živjeti kao da se nije ništa dogodilo.

— PRI�ATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE A Admet je svoju majku kaznio.

— ADMETOV PRI�ATEL� Izbacio ju je iz vlastite kuće, da.

— ALKESTIDINA PRI�ATEL� ICA Znate što, ja verujem da je Admetu teško. Za dlaku je izbjegao smrt. Baš za dlaku. Ipak je to šok.

— ADMETOV PRI�ATEL� Taj je dijete sreće. Oduvijek. Sve mu polazi za rukom. Kad bolje promislim.

— PRI�ATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Bez obzira na sve, sprovod je bio prekrasan.

— KĆI Veličanstven. Toliko ljudi. Lijepo vrijeme.

— ADMETOV PRI�ATEL� Da. Sunce. Svidjelo bi joj se.

— PRI�ATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE I nije dugo trajalo. Ne volim kad dugo traje.

— ALKESTIDINA PRI�ATEL� ICA Ni ja.

— PRI�ATEL�ICA ADMETOVE MA�KE Ni vjenčanja ne smiju dugo trajati.

— ALKESTIDINA PRI�ATEL� ICA Slažem se.

— ADMETOV PRI�ATEL� Umrla mu je žena, ostavila djecu, pa što, ni prvi ni zadnji kome se to dogodilo.

— ALKESTIDINA PRI�ATEL� ICA Spasio je živu glavu, to je navažnije.

— ŠAPAT SMRTI dolazi kada hoće, prišulja se kad hoće, doleti kada hoće, navali kada hoće, napada kada hoće, uzima kada hoće, tiho kad tako hoće, grubo kad tako hoće, naglo kad tako hoće, mirno kad tako hoće, nježno kad tako hoće, odjednom kad tako hoće, dio po dio kad tako hoće, odnosi koga hoće, ostavlja koga hoće, redom kojim baš hoće, uvijek, baš uvijek, sve kako hoće sve kada hoće, onako kako hoće, i onda kada hoće, trga kad hoće, liže kad hoće, grize kad hoće, čupa kad hoće, siše kad hoće, radi što hoće, i kako hoće i kome hoće.

72 73

Gosti se raziđu.

— ADMET Da sam bar i ja mrtav. Ne mogu. Govoriti ne mogu, šutjeti ne mogu. Nisam znao da je ovako. Prevelika je cijena. Da sam bar i ja mrtav.

— HERAKLO Svi moramo jedanput umrijeti, zar ne? Nema tog čovjeka koji sa sigurnošću može reći: sutra ću biti živ.

— ADMET Kako ću ja sad? Mrak. Bez nje je ovdje pustoš. Pustoš. Nisam mislio da je ovako.

— HERAKLO Uzdisanjem ništa nećeš postići.

— ADMET Uništilo me. Nisam mislio da je ovako. Njena je sudbina sretnija od moje. Samo se čini da nije tako. Sad mi je jasno. Tek mi je sad sve jasno. Da sam barem ja mrtav.

— HERAKLO Ovo je tvoja žena.

Admet je ugleda. Heraklo ode.

Alkestida i Admet, sami.

10 DA SAM BAR E M �A M RTAV

11 ZA� EDNO

75

LADA KAŠTELAN AFTER EURIPIDES

DRAMATIS PERSONAEAlcestisAdmetusHeracles Admetus’ mother

GUESTS Friend of Admetus’ mother Her daughter Friend of Admetus Friend of AlcestisUnknown man

KMD Dubrovnik, June 2019

ALCESTIS

77

Enter friend of Admetus’ mother and her daughter.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER A strange kind of silence.

The daughter doesn’t answer. An unknown man enters.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER A strange kind of silence.

— UNKNOWN MAN Strange.

They remain silent. The friend of Admetus arrives.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER A strange kind of silence?

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS Strange.

— UNKNOWN MAN Quite strange.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER All is silent. Admetus’ whole house is silent.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS Truly.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER Odd.

Silence, again.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER If you think carefully, marriage brings more suffering than joy.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS Marriage? Do you really think so?

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER In marriage there is more pain than happiness. I thought so before, but more so now, when I see this.

Unease. Silence.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER A really strange silence.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS Strange.

— UNKNOWN MAN Strange.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER Not even crying can be heard.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS No.

— DAUGHTER So it’s not finished.

— UNKNOWN MAN So it seems.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER Isn’t there anyone to tell us? Where is everybody?

— DAUGHTER Is it not glorious to give one’s life for your husband? The best a woman can do. So noble. So selfless. So unselfish. So splendid, splendid.

1 DEAD AND ALIVE

K. STEGNAR

76

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER Maybe she’s still breathing.

— DAUGHTER Does it matter?

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS No.

— DAUGHTER It doesn’t. It doesn’t matter.

A long silence again.

— UNKNOWN MAN She must be dead.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER I think someone is sobbing.

— DAUGHTER No. No. No.

— UNKNOWN MAN Admetus has the best wife in the world

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS He had.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER If it would be over, it wouldn’t be so quiet.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS Who knows.

The friend of Alcestis enters. All are silent.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS A strange kind of silence.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER Really strange.

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS Maybe they already took her out.

And buried her.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS Admetus? He wouldn’t bury her in secret

— DAUGHTER The funeral will surely be huge. For such a woman definitely.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS No doubt.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER Maybe we should have worn black.

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS Asclepius, son of Apollo, knew how to bring people back from the dead. They say that those already subdued by Death rose up again.

— UNKNOWN MAN But then Zeus incinerated him with a lightning bolt.

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS Yes.

— UNKNOWN MAN Orpheus didn’t make it. There is no cure. For this evil there is no cure.

— DAUGHTER But then Admetus saved himself. When Apollo loves him so.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS Everyone loves this man.

— DAUGHTER His mommy didn’t want to give her life for his.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS True, she didn’t.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER Who would want to descend into darkness, of his own free will.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS Alcestis. She wanted to on her own.

— DAUGHTER Aha. On her own. Right.

— UNKNOWN MAN Yes. She wanted to.

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS She offered it on her own. Nobody else wanted to. Admetus asked everywhere.

— DAUGHTER So it’s all the same to Death whom it takes?

— UNKNOWN MAN Yes. All the same.

— DAUGHTER All the same?

— UNKNOWN MAN All the same.

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS Is someone sobbing?

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS You’re imagining it.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER Maybe it isn’t time yet.

— UNKNOWN MAN It’s time. Today, exactly today.

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS I see her. I see her washing her white body with water from the stream. How she takes her best dress and jewelry out from a cedar chest. How she dresses slowly. How she prays. How she places a twig of myrrh before each altar in Admetus’ house, plucks its leaves, long, long. Without tears. Without crying. Beautiful as ever. Then she lies on the bed. Gets up. Lies down again. Gets up. Lies down again.

— UNKNOWN MAN It can’t be helped.

— DAUGHTER Maybe something will happen anyway.

— UNKNOWN MAN Alcestis, today she is both alive and dead.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS Dead and alive.

— UNKNOWN MAN Yes.

— DAUGHTER The best wife in the world.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER Dead and alive.

— DAUGHTER All the same.

They leave.

78 79

80 81

— ALCESTIS The Sun.Pale daylight. Vortices in the sky. A cloud glides. Quickly. Quickly. I see. I see it all. Childhood. In my homeland, in Iolcus, the walls of my home. I see, I see it all. Today is that day. I’m going. I’m going first. I see a boat. I see a boat on a lake. Two paddles. And Charon, calling me, he calls me, why do you hesitate, quick, what are you waiting for. He guides me, someone is guiding me. I see him.He leads me to the dead.His eyes are black. Shining.He has wings.He watches me. Hades.Leave me. I’m coming. Leave me.Slowly. Slowly.My children no longer have a mother.They will remain alone.For her a faithful husband. For him a good wife.That’s what I wish.Admetus. Listen to me, for just a bit.I have something to tell you.My life for yours.That’s how I wanted it.I didn’t have to. I didn’t have to die for you.I could have become someone

Admetus, alone.

— ADMETUS Wife of mine. I had you alive. And in death you will remain my only wife. No other. No other Thessalian will call me husband. None such exists, none such has yet been born. So noble, as beautiful as you. I have two children, this is enough. May the Gods let me rejoice in them. Since they denied me your presence. I will weep for you, wife, as long as life flows through me. Not once a year, like everyone else. I will hate my mother forever. She loved me with words, not deeds. You saved me. Your life for mine. A wife like you, and I lost you. Never, no feasts, no drinking or guests in my house, no dancing, ever again. Music won’t be heard. Never again. You took all of your joy with you. I will have a skilled artist make me your statue. In your spitting image. I will take it to bed. I will hold it. Caress it. Call your name and hold you in my lap, although you are gone. Gone. This joy seems bitter, but it will make it easier. You will come into my dreams. This way, I will at least see you at night. If I could sing like Orpheus and with my song enchant the gods below, I would snatch you from Hades. Wait for me there.

2 I ’ M GO I N G F I RST

3 N O OTH E R

else’s wife. And lived on.I didn’t want to without you.I don’t want to without you. I want nothing without you. Nothing.Your parents, they betrayed you.Your father and mother. Both.They didn’t want to go in place of their only son, although their time is running out. If they wanted to, I wouldn’t remain without you. You wouldn’t remain without me. Someone wants it to be this way.So be it. I can do it.Down there is silence.The water down there doesn’t ripple. You don’t hear the paddle as you float. You don’t dream. Nothing.I ask of you only one thing.Don’t marry again.Don’t, Admetus.That another would touch our children with her hands.Don’t, I beg you. Don’t.I want to go there. I have to go there.Not tomorrow, not someday, but right away. Now.Before you.I want to get there first.They are calling me. Waiting.And time…consoles.When you die, you are nothing.Nothing.I’m leaving.I am no more.I am no more.I’m leaving.First.

I will come to you when I die. Furnish our home, where we will live forever. Even in death I cannot bear to be without you. You, the only one faithful to me. A giant funeral will be held. She deserves to be buried with honors. The only one who was willing to die for me.

82 83

Heracles approaches Admetus.

— ADMETUS Heracles.

— HERACLES Did something happen? Are your children well? That’s what matters most.

— ADMETUS They’re fine.

— HERACLES May god protect them. You mother? She was old when I saw her last.

— ADMETUS Mother is alive.

— HERACLES Alcestis?

Admetus doesn’t answer.

— HERACLES Dead?

— ADMETUS She is and she isn’t.

— HERACLES I don’t understand.

— ADMETUS You don’t know?

— HERACLES I know that she decided to die for you.

— ADMETUS What are you saying?

— HERACLES I will stay with someone else.

— ADMETUS Don’t do this to me. I beg you.

— HERACLES What use is a guest now. You have to bury her. That foreigner.

— ADMETUS I beg you.

— HERACLES It makes no sense.

— ADMETUS The dead are dead, Heracles.

— HERACLES I will be grateful if you let me leave.

— ADMETUS Stay. I beg you.

— HERACLES Won’t I bother?

— ADMETUS No.

— HERACLES Are you sure?

— ADMETUS I don’t want you to go to someone else. I won’t have it. You are my guest.

— HERACLES Good, if you insist.

4 SO M E FO R E I G N E R

— ADMETUS So?

— HERACLES I didn’t know if you were mourning in advance.

— ADMETUS Isn’t it the same.

— HERACLES To be alive and to be dead.

— ADMETUS It was not my wife who died. Not my wife. Not her. Some foreigner, whom I took into my home.

— HERACLES A foreigner. And you now mourn for her.

— ADMETUS She had no one except me. Except us.

— HERACLES A foreigner?

Admetus nods.

— HERACLES And now you’re burying her.

— ADMETUS Yes. And my children loved this woman. But now she’s gone.

— HERACLES Too bad. I shouldn’t have come just now, Admetus.

— ADMETUS You must be hungry and tired.

— HERACLES Yes, I am. Thank you, Admetus.

84

Heracles remains alone. Alcestis appears, dead. Heracles sees her. The only one who can.

Gathering before the funeral, the women arrive first.

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS Their children, poor things.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER Poor things. To remain like that without their mother, horrible.

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS What did they ever do?

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER Really horrible. They must think she left for someplace abroad.

— DAUGHTER Who knows what they think. They say they kept repeating mom went down, mom went down, mom went down below.Down. Down below?!

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER I heard it was terrible. The parting. That she hugged them like crazy, cried, threw herself to the ground, yelled, that she clung to them tightly, but the poor children got so scared that they ran from the room. Then she proceeded to shake hands, to bid farewell to everyone.

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS I don’t believe it.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER That’s what I heard.

— DAUGHTER And Admetus?

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS That I don’t know.

— DAUGHTER To remain without such a wife, horrible.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER With two children.

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS They say she begged him not to marry again. What good is that to her now.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER It would be best if the children get a new mother as soon as possible.

— DAUGHTER As soon as possible? Yes, yes, Admetus is still young and rich. No time to waste.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER Nobody asks of him to forget her.

5 AN ENCOUNTER

6 THE MOST FAMOUS WOMAN OF ALL

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS Laodamia, the wife of Protesilaus, when he died, made a statue from wax and slept with it. Until her father threw it into the flames. And she threw herself after it.

— DAUGHTER She burnt herself?

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS Yes.

— DAUGHTER And?

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS Nothing, she burnt herself. Not even Orpheus made it. There’s no return.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER To leave one’s own children like that. Better if she’d taken them with her.

— DAUGHTER Taken them with her? As if they had no father.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER That’s something else. She should have thought of her children, she should have.

— DAUGHTER What about Admetus’ mother, shouldn’t she have thought of her son? The older you are, the more you want to live, it seems. Pelias, Alcestis’ father, wanted to become young again, remember?

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER Don’t bring that up. It’s horrible.

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS Horrible, horrible.

— DAUGHTER He saw how Medea put an old ram into her magic cauldron and a young lamb sprang out. He liked that.

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS Oh yes, Medea. That disgusting foreigner, disgusting. In that Colchis of hers she killed and chopped her own brother to pieces. Only to get her hands on Jason. But then they went to Iolcus and had to get rid of Pelias as well.

— DAUGHTER She told Pelias’ daughters to prepare a cauldron for their father.

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS For rejuvenation.

— DAUGHTER Yes, yes, for rejuvenation. And he went in happily by himself.

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS All except Alcestis.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER All except Alcestis? Really?

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS She didn’t want to participate in that with her sisters.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER In the rejuvenation cure?

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS She didn’t. Who knows why.

85

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER Do you think she knew what would happen?

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS They say she wept for days after they buried her father.

— DAUGHTER Boiled to death.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER I beg you.

— DAUGHTER Well seasoned.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER I beg you.

— DAUGHTER They must have stirred him good.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER Enough!

— DAUGHTER In order to regain her youth Admetus’ mother would immediately let herself be boiled too.

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS Immediately. No doubt.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER Admetus would have stirred her with pleasure, it seems. They are not on speaking terms, you know. And where are those sisters of Alcestis?

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS Each in her own province. Scattered.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER Fairly understandable.

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS They don’t even know about this thing with Alcestis.

— DAUGHTER How could they?

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER Maybe it’s better. I don’t know. That father. Those sisters. Her. Everything seems so unnatural, I don’t know. Everything is somehow twisted.

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS Twisted?

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER Yes. And she actually wasn’t that much of a looker.

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS She was always silent. It was hard to talk to her, yes.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER You could never guess her thoughts.

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS That strange look of hers.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER And then this.

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS Who could tell.

— DAUGHTER Something as glorious as this. And unique.

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS That’s for sure.

— DAUGHTER Who wouldn’t want to find such a wife who would go to her death for you. Such are hard to find.

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS Extremely hard.

— DAUGHTER Songs must be sung about her.

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS O yes, she will be famous, no doubt.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER But she was beautiful, in her own way.

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS So-so.

— DAUGHTER Gorgeous, gorgeous!

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER She had beautiful hands. And breasts. Everything else, so-so.

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS But she will be famous. More famous than any woman in the world.

— DAUGHTER And dead.

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS She asked for it.

86 87

88

Admetus enters. Guests sing in tribute to Alcestis.

— ADMETUS Dear friends. Your presence is precious in these hard times. Thank you for gathering in order to escort my beloved wife on her last journey.

Admetus’ mother enters, interrupts him.

— ADMETUS’ MOTHER My son, I feel your pain. You are bereft of a truly worthy and wise woman, everyone agrees. The loss is terrible, but you have to bear it. Take this, let it be buried with her. All respects have to be paid to her, who gave her life for you. And I didn’t lose my son and I won’t grow old without him. With this noble act she elevated the entire female gender. Alcestis, you saved him and spared me from sorrow.

— ADMETUS I never invited you here. And your presence is not wanted. I need nothing from you, when I needed your empathy you simply slipped away. You, old woman, let a younger woman die and now you want to mourn her! No, you are not my mother, although you gave birth to me! In my veins foreign blood must flow, not yours. You showed yourself clearly, so don’t consider me your son anymore. How cowardly—at

your age, at your life’s close, you didn’t want, didn’t even consider to die for your son, but let some foreigner do it. She, she is my parent, only her, not you! You had the chance to do something noble, to sacrifice for your child that little of life you still have. And I could be alive with her. You’ve lived through everything in happiness and wealth. Someone to inherit it. What more could you ask for. You can’t claim you betrayed me because of my lack of respect, that isn’t true. I adored you. Adored. Adored. And this is how you repay my love. Come on, hurry, make yourself another son to take care of you when your powers fade, to bury you when you die. I won’t. If you had your way, I’d be dead already. But the fact I can still gaze into the sun can only be attributed to her, and only to her I owe my love.

— ADMETUS’ MOTHER Who do you think you are talking to? I am your mother. You think you can speak such a heap of nonsense and walk away calmly? Such insolence is simply too much. I gave birth to you so you could be the master of this house. I nursed you. Alone. It is not my duty to die for you. There is no law stating that parents must die for their children, not in Greece, nor anywhere else. Each has to bear what life has in store

7 MOTHER DIDN’T WANT TO

for them, be it happiness or sorrow. Everything I had to give, I gave to you, my son. You have a kingdom. Wealth. You have power. And my inheritance still awaits you. What did I do wrong? What have I deprived you of? Don’t die for me, nor will I die for you. You rejoice in gazing at the sun. Do you think your mother doesn’t? Life is short. We remain under the earth for a long, long time. But regardless, it is so good to be alive. You shamelessly won the right for yourself to postpone death and live beyond your given means—by killing her! If you call me a coward, what are you, you viper, who let your wife die for you! You solved this wisely, no doubt, each time Death comes for you, you will feed it another wife! And you, you dare to judge those who didn’t want to die! Better shut up. If you love your life, others love theirs, too.

— ADMETUS Speak, speak on. I see that the truth burns you. And everything you said is wrong.

— ADMETUS’ MOTHER To die for you would be wrong.

— ADMETUS It is not the same when an old woman dies and when a young man dies!

— ADMETUS’ MOTHER It’s not?

— ADMETUS It’s not! No, it’s not, no!

— ADMETUS’ MOTHER Life is but one.

— ADMETUS And you want yours to be longer than Zeus’, that I know.

— ADMETUS’ MOTHER Excuse me, why is she dead?

— ADMETUS She is dead because of your cowardice.

— ADMETUS’ MOTHER No, no, not because of me.

— ADMETUS You will need me still, old woman.

— ADMETUS’ MOTHER You will have to marry more often, if you continue like this.

— ADMETUS You are to blame for this! You didn’t want to die!

— ADMETUS’ MOTHER What can I do, the sun’s rays please me, my son.

— ADMETUS It’s as if you’re not my mother.

— ADMETUS’ MOTHER At least you are not closing my casket now.

— ADMETUS No one will speak highly of you when you die.

89

— ADMETUS’ MOTHER I couldn’t care less.

— ADMETUS You’re shameless.

— ADMETUS’ MOTHER And this one was crazy.

— ADMETUS Go! Leave me to bury her in peace.

— ADMETUS’ MOTHER I’m leaving, I’m leaving. Bury in peace the one you killed.

— ADMETUS Get out of my sight, get lost! From now on you no longer have a son, as if you never gave birth to me. You will never set foot in this house again.

Admetus leaves and with him everyone else. Admetus’ mother remains last. After a while she leaves as well.

90 91

Alcestis and Heracles.

— HERACLES I was in the Underworld. Not the first, not the last, others have been there, too. And I came back. I did. Others didn’t. Better that I didn’t. My mission was to bring Cerberus from the Underworld, the guard dog of Hades. They thought I wouldn’t make it. Down there, the dead ran from me. They didn’t run from Ulysses, when he was down there. They didn’t want to talk to me. With Ulysses they did. I did it. I brought the dog of Hades to Earth, the guardian of the Underworld. And came back to the living. I went to my house. There, in my home, my family waited for me. Megara, my wife, and my children. We hugged. Sat down to eat. And Ulysses returned to his

home, too.Nobody recognized him. Not his son, not his wife, not even his servants. Not anyone else. They gazed into his eyes and saw nothing. Listened to his words and they meant nothing. No one, no one among them, not his son, not his wife, not even his servants. And the dog, his dog, the dog Argos, died. The dog died from joy, wagged his tail and dropped dead in the gutter. He didn’t even get close to him. From joy, when Ulysses returned, when the divine Ulysses returned home. And me? I killed my wife and children, when I returned home. I butchered them all, while the food was still on the table. With a knife. And I don’t know why. I know that they are dead. And me? And me?

8 THE HOMECOMING

Everyone gathers.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER I mean, unheard of.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS That thing with his mother?

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER That too, that too.

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS Yes, it was quite unpleasant.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER As if he’d gone mad.

— DAUGHTER What kind of man is that? Who is that?

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS I don’t know. Admetus received him while her body was still warm.

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS He seems perfectly fine to me.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER Must be someone from his youth.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS Admetus said never, never again will there be feasts at my house, never…and now!

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER And now look at this!

— DAUGHTER Alcestis wouldn’t be angry.

9 WHAT K I N D O F MAN I S THAT

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS She wouldn’t? Her?

— DAUGHTER And who is this one?

— UNKNOWN MAN That man, that’s Heracles.

— DAUGHTER That’s Heracles?

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS The famous Heracles?

— UNKNOWN MAN Yes, the hero. Heracles. That’s him.

— DAUGHTER I thought he was long dead.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER I don’t believe that this is Heracles.

— UNKNOWN MAN It’s him.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER The stories people tell about him, huh.

— DAUGHTER What?

— FRIEND OD ADMETUS Terrible things, really terrible.

— DAUGHTER What now? What? I know of those twelve glorious labors.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER Better that you don’t know.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS Better.

— DAUGHTER What?

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS He butchered his wife and children.

— DAUGHTER Excuse me!?

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER With a knife.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS Unpunished. He went on living as if nothing happened.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER But Admetus punished his mother.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS Threw her out of her own house, yes.

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS You know what, I think Admetus took all of this really hard. He escaped death by the skin of his teeth. Truly by the skin of his teeth. That’s a shock nonetheless.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS That one is a child of fortune. Always was. The world at his fingertips. If I think carefully.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER Regardless, the funeral was magnificent.

— DAUGHTER Glorious. So many people. Nice weather.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS Yes. The sun. She would have liked it.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER And it didn’t last long. I don’t like it when it lasts long.

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS Me neither.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS’ MOTHER Weddings also shouldn’t last long.

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS I agree.

— FRIEND OF ADMETUS His wife died, left the children, so what, he’s not the first, nor the last to whom something like this has happened.

— FRIEND OF ALCESTIS He saved his own head, that’s what matters.

— WHISPER OF DEATH it comes when it wants to, it sneaks up when it wants to, it flies in when it wants to, it charges when it wants to, it attacks when it wants to, it takes when it wants to, quietly when it wants to, roughly when it wants to, quickly when it wants to, calmly when it wants to, tenderly when it wants to, suddenly when it wants to, piece by piece when it wants to, takes whom it wants to, leaves whom it wants to, in just the order it wants to, always, just always, everything how it wants to, everything when it wants to, just as it wants to, and when it wants to, rips when it wants to, licks when it wants to, bites when it wants to, plucks when it wants to, sucks when it wants to, does as it wants to, and how it wants to, and to whom it wants to.

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The guests part.

— ADMETUS If I were at least dead, too. I can’t. I can’t talk, can’t keep silent. I didn’t know it would be like this. The price is too high. If I were at least dead, too.

— HERACLES We all have to die someday, right? No man can say with certainty: I will be alive tomorrow.

— ADMETUS How will I go on now. Darkness. Without her a wasteland spreads. A wasteland. I didn’t think it would be like this.

Alcestis and Admetus alone.

10 I F AT LEAST I WE R E D EAD

11 TOG ETH E R

— HERACLES Moaning won’t solve anything.

— ADMETUS It destroyed me. I didn’t think it would be like this. Her fate is happier than mine. It only seems it isn’t. Now everything is clear. Only now everything is clear. If at least I were dead.

— HERACLES This is your wife.

Admetus sees her. Heracles leaves.

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Godine 2018. režirala je baletnu produkciju Rječnik Hazara / Lovci na snove u Narodnom pozorištu u Beogradu.

Među brojnim priznanjima Livija Pandur je u 2018. godini primila nagradu za životno djelo Slovenske udruge dramskih umjetnika (ZDUS)

LIVIJA PANDUR Nakon studija dramaturgije na slovenskoj Akademiji za kazalište, radio, film i televiziju u Ljubljani, Livija Pandur radi kao autorica i dramaturginja na različitim produkcijama u brojnim domačim i međunarodnim projektima. Od 1991. do 1996. bila je dramaturginja Drame Slovenskog nacionalnog gledališča Maribor. Među brojnim projektima bila je dramaturginja na produkcijama Šeherezada (Ivo Svetina), Faust (Goethe), Hamlet (Shakespeare), Carmen (Mérimée), La divina commedia (Dante), Russian Mission (Dostojevski), Babylon (Svetina) redatelja Tomaža Pandura.

Godine 1997. uredila je i izdala kazališnu monografiju Pandur’s Theatre of Dreams (Pandurovo kazalište snova) te piše eseje i članke za brojne publikacije. Od godine 2001. do 2002. radi u Thalia teatru u Hamburgu, u Njemačkoj, kao scenaristica i dramaturginja na Danteovoj trilogiji La divina commedia (Božanstvena komedija – Pakao, Raj, Čistilište), a također je dramaturginja i suradnica redatelja na sljedećim projekatima: Pakao u kazalištu María Guerrero (Centro Dramático Nacional, Madrid, 2005.), Barocco (Centro Cultural de la Villa, Madrid, 2007.), Hamlet (Teatro Espaňol, Madrid, 2009.), Medea (Festival Merida, 2009.), balet Simfonija tužnih pjesama (Staatsoper Berlin, 2010.), Sumrak bogova (Teatro Espaňol, Madrid, 2011.) u režiji Tomaža Pandura.

Od 2002. Livija Pandur je voditeljica i producentica međunarodne kazališne organizacije Pandur.Theaters. Između 2002. i 2012. radi kao dramaturginja na sljedećim predstavama u koprodukcijama Pandur.Theatersa: Hazarski rječnik Milorada Pavića, Sto minuta prema Braći Karamazovima F. M. Dostojevskog, Tesla Electric Company, Kaligula Alberta Camusa, Rat i mir L. N. Tolstoja, Medeja Euripida i Michelangelo. Između 2013. i 2015. godine surađuje kao koautorica adaptacija i dramaturginja predstava u režiji Tomaža Pandura: Richard III + II prema kraljevskim tragedijama W. Shakespearea (SNG Ljubljana), Kralj Lear W. Shakespearea (Peireous 260, Atena) i Faust W. Goethea (Centro Dramático National Madrid, 2014; SNG Ljubljana, 2015.).

Godine 2016. završila je i režirala predstavu Bezgrešna (Immaculata), Hommage à Tomaž Pandur, SNG Maribor, koju je adaptirala i pripremala s Tomažem Pandurom prije njegova odlaska.

Godine 2017. Livija Pandur s koreografom Ronaldom Savkovićem obnovila je balet Simfonija tužnih pjesama također kao Hommage á Tomaž Pandur u SNG Opera i Balet u Ljubljani.

101100 BIOGRAPHIESBIOGRAPHIES

In 2017 Livija Pandur, with choreographer Ronald Savković, re-staged the ballet Symphony of Sorrowful Songs as another Hommage á Tomaž Pandur in the Slovene National Theatre Opera and Ballet Ljubljana. In 2018 she directed the ballet performance Dictionary of the Khazars / Dreamhunters in the National Theatre in Belgrade.

Among other awards Livija Pandur received the award of The Slovene Association of Dramatic Artists (ZDUS) for her life’s work in 2018.

LIVIJA PANDUR After studying dramaturgy at the Academy for Theatre, Radio, Film and Television in Ljubljana, Slovenia, Livija Pandur worked as a writer and dramaturge on various productions in a number of national and international projects. Between 1991 and 1996 she was the chief dramaturge of the Slovene National Theatre Drama Maribor. Among other projects, she was the dramaturge of the East-West opera Scheherezade by Ivo Svetina, Goethe’s Faust, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Mérimée’s Carmen, Dante’s La divina commedia, Dostoevsky’s Russian Mission, Svetina’s Babylon, directed by Tomaž Pandur.

In 1997 she edited and published the theatre monograph Pandur’s Theatre of Dreams and wrote essays and articles for numeorus publications. From 2001 to 2002 she worked at the Thalia Theatre in Hamburg as dramatist and dramaturge on Dante’s trilogy The Divine Comedy (Inferno, Purgatory, Paradise) and was the dramaturge and assistant director of the following projects directed by Tomaž Pandur: Infierno in Teatro María Guerrero (Centro Dramático Nacional, Madrid, 2005), Barroco (Centro Cultural de la Villa, Madrid, 2007), Hamlet (Teatro Español, Madrid, 2009), Medea (Festival Merida, 2009), the ballet Symphony of Sorrowful Songs (Staatsoper Berlin, 2010), Caida de los dioses (Teatro Español, Madrid, 2011).

Since 2002 Livija Pandur is the director and producer of the international theatre organization Pandur.Theaters. Between the years 2002 and 2012 she also acted as dramaturge on the performances coproduced by Pandur.Theaters: Miloras Pavić’s Dictionary of the Khazars, One Hundred Minutes based on The Brothers Karamazov by F. M. Dostoevsky, Tesla Electric Company, Caligula by Camus (with Gavella Theatre, Zagreb), War and Peace by L. N. Tolstoy, Medea by Euripides and Michelangelo (with Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb). Between 2013 and 2015 she co-authored the adaptations and acted as dramaturge for the following performances directed by Tomaž Pandur: Richard III + II based on W. Shakespeare’s royal tragedies (Slovene National Theatre Drama Ljubljana), King Lear by W. Shakespeare (Peireous 260, Athens) and Goethe’s Faust (Centro Dramático National Madrid, 2014; Slovene National Theatre Drama Ljubljana, 2015).

In 2016 she finished and directed the performance Immaculata, Hommage á Tomaž Pandur in the Slovene National Theatre Drama Maribor, which they adapted and prepared with Tomaž Pandur before his passing.

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NUMEN/FOR USE je hrvatsko-austrijski dizajnerski kolektiv koji djeluje u području scenografije, industrijskog i prostornog dizajna i konceptualne umjetnosti. Grupa je po prvi put formirana 1998. u a čine ju produkt dizajneri: Sven Jonke, Christoph Katzler i Nikola Radeljković pod imenom For Use. Godine 1999. osnivaju Numen, kao kolektivni identitet, koji pokriva sve projekte koji su aktualizirani izvan sfere industrijskoga dizajna. Od 2004. godine nadalje, završivši obimnu ambijentalnu instalaciju za produkciju Inferno (Pakao) koju režira Tomaž Pandur, u nacionalnom kazalištu u Madridu, Numen/For Use postaje sve više uključen u scenografski posao.

Slijede novi radovi u kazalištima diljem Europe. Godine 2008. kolektiv svoj fokus usmjerava prema konfiguraciji objekata i koncepata bez predodređene funkcije, što rezultira hibridnijim i eksperimentalnim radovima kao što su N-Light serije i široki spektar instalacija velikog obujma (Tape, Net, Tuft, Tube and String) koje su u sadašnjoj postavi u javnim prostorima i umjetničkim galerijama diljem svijeta. Kolektiv je dobio mnoge prestižne nagrade kao što su: Brit Insurance Award London, Design Award na International Design Festival-u DMY, Berlin; dvije zlatne medalje na natjecanju Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space; dvije nagrade Borštnikovih susreta za scenografiju; dvije nagrade Red Dot za dizajn produkciju i nagradu German Design Council i ostale brojne nagrade.

Izlažu u Danish Design Center, Ars Electronica, Design Museum London, Watts Institute of Contemporary Art/CCA San Francisco, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Spiral Gallery Tokyo, Zou-na-hanna Terrace Yokohama, Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi Florence, Färgfabriken Stockholm, Centro Cultural FIESP , Sao Paulo and Palais de Tokyo, Pariz i dr.

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K. STEGNAR

NUMEN/FOR USE is a Croatian-Austrian design collective working in the fields of scenography, industrial and spatial design and conceptual art. The group first formed in 1998 as a collaborative effort of product designers Sven Jonke, Christoph Katzler and Nikola Radeljković under the banner For Use. In 1999 they established Numen as a collective identity covering all projects, which went beyond the sphere of industrial design. From 2004 onwards, after completing an extensive site-specific installation for the production of Inferno directed by Tomaž Pandur in the National Centre for Drama in Madrid, Numen/For Use became strongly involved in scenography.

Further projects in theatres across Europe followed. In 2008 the collective turned its focus towards configuring objects and concepts without a predefined function, an activity resulting in more hybrid and experimental works such as the N-Light series and a whole spectrum of immersive large-scale installations (Tape, Net, Tuft, Tube and String) which are currently featured in public spaces and art galleries around the globe. The collective won many prestigious awards such as the Brit Insurance Award London, a Design Award at the International Design Festival DMY Berlin, two gold medals at the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space, two Borštnik scenography awards, two Red Dot Awards for product design and the German Design Council Award to name a few. They exhibited at the Danish Design Center, Ars Electronica, Design Museum London, Watts Institute of Contemporary Art/CCA San Francisco, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Spiral Gallery Tokyo, Zou-na-hanna Terrace Yokohama, Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi Florence, Färgfabriken Stockholm, Centro Cultural FIESP in Sao Paulo and Palais de Tokyo in Paris.

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Z. ČOTIĆ

SILENCE Duo Silence (kojega čine Boris Benko i Primož Hladnik) do sada je objavio pet albuma: Ma non troppo (1997.), Unlike a Virgin (1999.), Vain – a Tribute to a Ghost (2004.), Key Silence (2CD, 2006.) i Musical Accompaniment for the End of the World (2012.).

Godine 2006. duo je skladao i izdao Volk, Laibachov sedmi album. Godine 2015. Laibach i Silence postali su prvi zapadni alternativni bendovi koji su nastupali u Sjevernoj Koreji. Duo je za tu prigodu prearanžirao devet songova iz mjuzikla Moje pjesme, moji snovi. Pjesme je objavila godine 2018. izdavačka kuća Mute Records.

Duo je skladao brojna djela za predstave i plesne izvedbe. Najpoznatije su suradnje dua Silence s Tomažom Pandurom, Aleksandrom Popovskim i Matjažom Pograjcem. Diskografija dua uključuje sljedeće kazališne izvedbe: Maison des rendez-vous (2003.), Love unto Death (2007.), Veronika (2005.) and The Passion of the Cold (2008.), dvostruki album s glazbom iz predstava Barroco i Caligula Tomaža Pandura.

Duet potpisuje i četiri igrana filma: A Call Girl (2009), Project Cancer (2013) i Nightlife (2016) Damjana Kozole te History of Love (2018) Sonje Prosenc.

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K. STEGNAR, G. ŠOLETIĆ

SILENCE The duet Silence (comprised of Boris Benko and Primož Hladnik) has released five albums so far: Ma non troppo (1997), Unlike a Virgin (1999), Vain – a Tribute to a Ghost (2004), Key Si-lence (2CD, 2006) and Musical Accompaniment for the End of the World (2012).

In 2006, the duet composed and produced Volk, Laibach’s 7th album. In 2015, Laibach and Silence became the first Western alternative acts to perform in North Korea. The duet rearranged nine standards from the musical The Sound of Music for the occa-sion. The songs were released by Mute Records in 2018.

The duet has written numerous scores for plays and dance performances. Silence’s notable collaborators include directors Tomaž Pandur, Aleksandar Popovski, and Matjaž Pograjc. The du-et’s discography includes the following theatre scores: Maison des rendez-vous (2003), Love Unto Death (2007), Veronika (2005) and The Passion of the Cold (2008), a double album with music from Pandur’s plays Barroco and Caligula.

The duet has also scored four feature films: A Call Girl (2009), Project Cancer (2013), and Nightlife (2016) by Damjan Ko-zole, and History of Love (2018) by Sonja Prosenc.

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I. KOVAČ, G. ŠOLETIĆ, M. STANIĆ, N. LASIĆ, V. JURČIĆ

DANICA DEDIJER Rođena je 1948. u Beogradu. Diplomirala je engleski i francuski na Filozofskom fakultetu Sveučilišta u Zagrebu i slikarstvo u klasi prof. Šime Perića na Akademiji likovne umjetnosti u Zagrebu. Od 1975. samostalno radi kao kostimografkinja u drami, operi, baletu te na filmu i televiziji. Ostvarila je više od 450 projekata i za svoj je rad primila brojne ugledne nagrade. Posljednjih godina kao kostimografkinja surađivala je s Kazalištem Marina Držića na predstavama Skup, Macbeth, Kad je Bog stvarao Dubrovnik, Na Sveta tri kralja i Ne plaćamo, ne plaćamo!

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Z. ČOTIĆ, K. STEGNAR

DANICA DEDIJER Born in 1948 in Belgrade. She graduated in English and French at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb. She also graduated in painting in the class of prof. Šime Perić at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. Since 1975 she has been working as a costume designer in theater, opera, ballet, film and television. She has succesfully collaborated in more than 450 projects and has received numerous prestigious awards. She has recently cooperated with Marin Držić Theatre in the following performances: The Miser, Macbeth, When God Made Dubrovnik, Twelfth Night, Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay!

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VESNA KOLAREC Rođena je 1985. godine u Zagrebu. Završila je školu Primijenjene umjetnosti i dizajna, smjer fotografija. Nastavila je obrazovanje na Višoj školi za fotografiju i vizualne umjetnosti (Istituto superiore di fotografia e arti visive) u Padovi. Nakon završetka obrazovanja vratila se u Zagreb gdje je upisala Akademiju dramske umjetnosti, odsjek filmskog i televizijskog snimanja. Posljednje dvije godine na Akademiji upisala je smjer Oblikovanje svjetla na kojemu je diplomirala 2014. godine. Kao oblikovateljica svjetla surađivala je s Hrvatskim narodnim kazalištem u Zagrebu, Osijeku, Rijeci i Varaždinu, s Slovenskim nacionalnim gledališčem u Mariboru, Dubrovačkim ljetnim igrama, Koncertnom dvoranom Vatroslav Lisinski, kazalištem Kerempuh, Teatrom ITD, kazalištem Žar ptica, KNAP-om, Centrom za kulturu Trešnjevka, Kazalištem Vidra i DK Dubrava. Članica je Udruženja likovnih umjetnika primijenjenih umjetnosti Hrvatske i Hrvatske zajednice samostalnih umjetnika.

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K. STEGNAR

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I. KOVAČ

VESNA KOLAREC Born in 1985 in Zagreb, where she finished the School of Applied Arts and Design, Photography Department. She continued her education at Istituto Superiore di Fotografia e Arti Visive in Padua (Photography and Visual Arts). Having successfully completed her education, she returned to Zagreb, where she enrolled at the Academy of Dramatic Arts, Department of Film and Television. She obtained her M.A. degree in Lighting design in 2014. As a light designer she has collaborated with the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, Osijek, Rijeka and Varaždin, as well as with the Slovene National Theatre in Maribor, the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, the Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall, Museum of Contemporary Arts – Gorgona, the Kerempuh Theatre, ITD Theatre, Žar Ptica Theatre, KNAP Theatre, Trešnjevka Culture Center, Vidra Theatre and Dubrava Theatre. She is a member of the Croatian Association of Visual Artists of Applied Arts as well as the Croatian Association of Individual Artists.

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K. STEGNAR, Z. ČOTIĆ

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I. KOVAČ, K. STEGNA

ALCESTIS

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