ZAGREB, 5 Sept (Hina) – The 21st World Theatre Festival will show four quite different plays at three theatres in Zagreb between 11 September and 4 October, the organisers announced at a press conference on Thursday.

Since only four plays will be performed, the organisers opted for “different aesthetics, poetics and sensibilities for different audiences.”

The festival opens with the play “F**k me” by Argentinian director Marina Otero, which premiered in 2020. Otero is a representative of the new Argentinian wave that explores the boundaries of dance, performance, autofiction and spectacle, and hybridly combines theatrical forms, redefining the boundaries of theatrical performance. The play will be performed at the Zagreb Youth Theatre.

Medea’s Children, directed by Swiss Milo Rau, a representative of documentary theatre, will be performed at KUC Travno on 28 September. The play, performed by children, is not a mere reinterpretation of the classical tragedy, but “explores how collective memories shape our understanding of justice, violence and morality,” the festival announcement says.

The play “Solo” by Nina Rajić Kranjac, “one of the most awarded Slovenian plays that brings an innovative approach to performance”, is scheduled for 1 October at the Gavella Theatre.

The festival will close with Macbeth, directed by Johan Simons, at the Zagreb Youth Theatre. The Dutch director has transformed the Shakespeare tragedy into a cruel comedy with elements of cabaret, with the tragic and the grotesque intertwining, according to the announcement.

The festival is co-funded by the City of Zagreb, the Ministry of Culture and Media, and the Goethe Institute.