The Croatian National Theatre Ivan pl. Zajc in coproduction with the Dubrovnik Summer Festival will stage the play Michelangelo Buonarotti by Miroslav Krleža. In the direction of Sebastian Horvat, the play will be premiered at the 69th Dubrovnik Summer Festival on the Island of Lokrum on 27th July.
Marin Blažević, the Rijeka Theatre general manager and artistic director, pointed out that this is an exceptionally significant cooperation regarding production and in the artistic sense.
The Dubrovnik Summer Festival artistic director Dora Ruždjak Podolski underlined that the coproduction model is becoming an important practice in the Croatian theatre policy and strategy, not only as a means of sharing experience and knowledge, broader artistic engagements too, but also due to its being cost-effective and profitable. It is of significance for both Rijeka and Dubrovnik, while for artists it presents a challenge and a way of pushing the limits.
“Plays are performed five times only at the Festival, while we would also like to make a tour of other theatres and cities with this play so that it may truly ‘come to life’”, added Ruždjak Podolski.
The Festival assistant artistic director Saša Božić said that it is for the first time that Krleža’s Michelangelo, an expressionist drama on the relationship between the artist and the power, is staged at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival.
Rehearsals for this production begin in June at the CNT Ivan pl. Zajc, the international team of authors consisting of director Sebastijan Horvat, dramaturge and author of the adaptation Milan Marković, set designer Igor Vasiljev, costume designer Belinda Radulović, composer Karmina Šilec, stage movement assistant Ivana Kalc and lighting designer Aleksandar Čavlek. The cast features members of the Rijeka CNT Drama, Olivera Baljak, Tanja Smoje, Jelena Lopatić, Marija Tadić, Aleksandar Cvjetković, Jasmin Mekić, Dean Krivačić, Nikola Nedić, Edi Ćelić, a member of the Rijeka CNT Italian Drama Giuseppe Nicodemo, Jerko Marčić from the Zagreb Kerempuh Theatre and Rakan Rushaidat from the Zagreb ZKM Theatre in the leading role. The DSF Chorus will take part in this production, while it will be the Rijeka CNT Opera Chorus to take part in performances in Rijeka.