THE STORY OF TEA

This performance takes as its point of departure the classic play by A.P. Chekov, “Three Sisters”. The play serves as a reference point, the frame which holds different stories and topics together. The central theme of Chekov’s play – the train that will eventually take the sisters to their dream place- Moscow, or the situation of missing opportunities and lost chances, inspired and provoked several important issues that DAH Theater’s version of “Three Sisters” is concerned with. [2006]

Trains and missed opportunities lead to missing people, missing languages and missing truths. This performance explores the meaning of memory in relation to truth – especially harsh truth. The question which the performance puts in focus is not about hidden truths but rather about how we treat harsh truth. What happens when, for example, the truth about the abduction of people in a train, during the wars in our region, is known and recognized, even on the level of the state, but until today the victims have not been officially mourned and their families have never heard one word of condolence? What are the implications of the mass of information that we get today through the media, information that is not properly or humanely treated. What is the role of memory? What are the forms of amnesia in our time and how do we create the ritual of anamnesis?

“The forgetting that the anamnesis seeks to undo is the forgetting that takes place whenever violence is deemed justified”.

Performers: Jugoslav Hadžić, Aleksandra Jelić, Sanja Krsmanović-Tasić, Maja Mitić
Music (composed and performed): Aleksandra Damnjanović, Nebojša Ignjatović, Jugoslav Hadžić
Director: Dijana Milošević
Scenography: Neša Paripović
Lights: Radomir Stamenković
Photography: Jovan Čekić, Vincent Abbey
Stage construction: Nikola Tasić – ARBOS

Realization supported by: Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Secretariat for Culture of the City of Belgrade