Will You Ever Be Happy Again? in Leipzig

Will You Ever Be Happy Again?, after its premiere in 2008, performing in different European cities and different festivals and contexts and touring a lot in the last year, finally had its German premiere at Euro-scene festival in Leipzig in November 2009. The fact that the performance opens up a space for the discussion was confirmed during the public talks following the show both evenings. They were organized by the festival, both times moderated by dr. Martina Bako, the professor of theatre science at the University of Leipzig. The most of the people took very active (and passionate!)involvement in discussions and even after the official end we continued to talk endlessly, till the early morning hours, in the festival café.

Just a couple of days before the 20-year anniversary of the Berlin wall fall we were sitting with our East German audience discussing issues of identity, recent history, it’s personal and official ’versions’, etc. What other ideal set up could I imagine when the production started? Only a week before this we were in Sarajevo, another ’ideal’ surroundings for the issues brought by Will You Ever Be Happy Again?

Most of the people we met in a certain way chose to live in Leipzig after 1989... Why? Most of them agree that it’s offering new opportunities, motives and the active, intriguing position concerning the questions of history, politics and identity in general (German, European, global...). Realizing that the moment of German reunion cannot be considered simply as a step towards a ’bright future’ was one of the triggers which opened countless very complicated but interesting questions and my personal realization that the issue of German identity is much more complicated regarding it’s recent history put me in a situation to rethink my own thoughts, not only about the performance, but about the relations in-between collective, private, official and intimate, private ‘histories’, ‘identities’, ‘stereotypes’, etc.

For example - a man from the audience said: “I am happy that my children could be proud of German identity. I am happy that it is, at some extent, untied from the burden of history and that my children do feel as Germans, which I was not allowed to do or at least I would feel shame in the moments I was trying to think about it.” Interesting enough, the question of German identity brought very different answers and opinions, in relation to different generations of people in the audience.
During the interview for the MDR TV show Artour I was asked what could be the 100% Serbian. I tried to reply with the opposite question - what could be the 100% German? Both interviewer and me left the room with unreturned questions instead of replies. Leipzig was perhaps the most obvious place in which was clear that the performance opens up only new questions more than offering answers. It was special to feel that it re-units people in trying to find the possible answers together and, my very personal opinion is that it only adds another dimension to the performance, or at least, that this layer of unanswered questions is a place for new thoughts, new dialogues, new exchanges of experience, personal or collective, intimate or, so called official. Even by making the small steps, theatre should be produced in relation to its historical and social, political and cultural context and it should try to reflect actuality and that is the theatre I am very much interested in.

Sanja Mitrović, Stichting Stand Up Tall Productions

More texts about WYEBHA? tour soon follows on: www.willyoueverbehappyagain.wordpress.com.

shedule november december 2009

WYEBHA - German premiere
4 nov 19.30 - Euro-scene Festival, Leipzig
5 nov 22.00 – Euro-scene Festival, Leipzig
place: Schaubühne Lindenfels
www.euro-scene.de

1:Songs
13, 14 nov 20.30 - Beursschouwburg, Brussel

WYEBHA
17 nov 19.15 – Théâtre de la Vignette, Montpellier, France
18 nov 20.30 – Théâtre de la Vignette, Montpellier, France
http://theatre.univ-montp3.fr/novembre.htm

1:Songs
19 nov 20.30 - Lantaren/Venster, Rotterdam

WYEBHA
20 nov 21:30 - Mettre en scène festival, Rennes, France
21 nov 17:00 and 21:00 – Mettre en scène festival, Rennes, France
place: CCRNB

Holland Tsunami
24, 25 nov 20.30 – Kaai theatre, Brussels

1:Songs
2 dec - Corrosia!, Almere

upcoming events

Will You Ever Be Happy Again? Tour:
www.willyoueverbehappyagain.wordpress.com

2009
22 October - Mess Festival, Sarajevo, Bosnia (SARTR)
www.mess.ba

4 November at 19.30 / German premiere - Euro-Scene Festival, Leipzig, Germany
5 November at 22.00 / German premiere - Euro-Scene Festival, Leipzig, Germany
Place: Schaubühne Lindenfels
www.euro-scene.de

17 November at 19.15 - Théâtre de la Vignette, Montpellier, France
18 November at 20.30 - Théâtre de la Vignette, Montpellier, France
http://theatre.univ-montp3.fr/novembre.htm

20 November at 21.30 - Mettre en scène festival, Rennes, France (CCRNB)
21 November at 17:00 and 21:00 - Mettre en scène festival, Rennes, France (CCRNB)

2010
25-26 January - Trente, Italy

10-12 February - Theater Kikker, Utrecht

April 2010 - Dutch tour (13 cities)

upcoming events

August 22 / Will You Ever Be Happy Again? - Lowlands festival, Holland
www.lowlands.nl

August 23 / Will You Ever Be Happy Again? - Theaterspektakel Festival, Zurich
Nord/ www.theaterspektakel.ch

September 16-20 / Artists in Public, Belgrade

Will You Ever Be Happy Again? in Belgrade and Presevo

After the reprise in Belgrade in CZKD, "Will You Ever Be Happy Again?" played in Center for Culture in Presevo in June. We went there together with our hosts - CZKD and Youth Initiative for Human Rights from Belgrade. The audience was on stage, the subtitles were in Albanin. After the performance, we had the discusssion with the local audience. The video material will be soon posted on one of our blogs.

The interview (in Serbian) you can read at:
http://www.e-novine.com/intervju/intervju-kultura/27281-Umetnost-nije-dekoracija.html

Will You Ever Be Happy Again? in Strasbourg

"Will You Ever Be Happy Again?" played to sold out houses in Strasbourg as part of Festival Premières, a festival showcasing work by young European directors. We performed four times at Studio Kable and I participated in a platform event with five other European directors. French television France 3 made a trailer of the performance. Both the audience and the critics reacted enthusiastically. All the reactions and critics will be soon translated and published on the "Will You Ever Be Happy Again?" blog: http://willyoueverbehappyagain.wordpress.com/ as well as the announcements for the future performances in Holland, Serbia, France, Switzerland, Bosnia and Germany.

The interview for the French cultural magazine Diversions you can find here:
http://www.diversions-magazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=87

The French version of the interview together with the introduction written by Dominique Demangeot you can find here:

http://www.diversions-magazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=84&Itemid=34


More about the festival you can find on the following links:
http://www.le-maillon.com/
http://premieres.tns.fr/FR/401
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=90530166285&ref=nf

trailer Will You Ever Be Happy Again?