Strength, Courage and Stupidity

During 49 festival days, over 620 participants from the fields of drama, literature, music, and visual arts will perform in the programme of the 37th edition of "Theatre City" festival. The activities will take place on the stage "Between the Churches," inside the Santa Maria Church, on the Poets' Square, on the streets of the Old Town, on the plateau in front of the Avala Hotel, and in the amphitheatre of the Stanjevići Monastery.

This year's festival is held under the motto Strength, Courage, and Stupidity: "The complexity of the times that have befallen upon us blurred our believing both the stories with happy endings and infallible and painless moral actions. However, it does not mean that there is no faith in humanity. The willingness to confront our own flaws and weaknesses, everyone is familiar with, and to expose them may actually be a safer guide to better understanding the entirety of human nature. Sometimes strong, sometimes brave, sometimes foolish. Sometimes, and most often simultaneously, both brave and strong and foolish."

The drama programme hosts 15 plays directed by: Ana Tomović, Vuk Ršumović, Boris Liješević, Nina Nikolić, Milan Nešković, Mirjana Medojević, Marko Misirač, Igor Vuk Torbica, Milan Karažić, Nikita Milivojević, Vito Taufer, a director and choreographer Staša Zurovac, as well as the actress, Lucija Barišić’s, author project. The festival welcomes theatrical plays from Montenegro, Macedonia, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.   

There are two theatrical premieres: A guided walk throughout the authentical sights of the old Budva”, titled Unreal City, based upon the text and directed by Vuk Ršumović. The second one is a coproduction with the NT Sombor, directed by the Slovenian director Vito Taufer, based upon the legendary text Radovan III  by Dušan Kovačević.

The 37th festival edition embraces the literary night with Dušan Kovačević, a writer at Poets Square. Dušan Kovačević is one of the laureates of City Theatre Award “Stefan Mitrov Ljubiša“ for literary achievements in 1996.   

The music programme includes 9 concerts. Next to the opening night, the following artists will be on stage: Nemanja Radulović, the violinist, Maestro Bojan Suđić, Boris Kraljević, the pianist, “Zagreb soloists“, as well as Young Montenegrin musicians. 

Maestro Suđić, jubilee award winner for the special contribution to the festival has expressed great pleasure for mutual cooperation with the festival, a collaboration that is being continued this year. He also said the music programme is a strong asset of the festival besides the drama programme. 

This year, Poets Square is assembling the best writers of the region during 15 literary nights: Đorđe Matić, Goran Petrović, Miraš Martinović, Vesna Goldsvorti, Tanja Bakić, Milo Lompar, Aleksandar Šurbatović, Mihajlo Pantić, Jana Radičević, Snježana Banović, Mirjana Novaković, Dušan Kovačević will present their latest works.

The moderators play an important role of Poets Square. They are themselves respectable writers and critics, such as: Nebojša Grujičić, Mića Vujičić, Prof. Dr. Aleksandar Jerkov, Barbara Delać, Mr. Milorad Durutović, Mr. Božena Jelušić, Danka Ivanović MA, Tamara Krstić, Gojko Božović, Prof. Dr. Jelena Knežević, Mr. Janko Ljumović, Dr. Petra Bjelic, etc.

The central part of the Festival Art Programme is planned to happen on 13 July, when the exhibition “Mentors and protégés of Herceg Novi Art School” – in cooperation with The National Museum of Montenegro - will open. The National Museum Director looked back to the long lasting cooperation of  “City Theatre” and the National Museum of Montenegro. 

The special night on the stage "Between Churches" will be dedicated to Nebojša Glogovac. His acting career marked “City Theatre” courses as well. In 2009, the festival awarded him the ”Theatre City” Theatrical Creativity Award. 

The festival would like to thank the pianist Bojan Martinovic and the theatrical critic Bojan Munjin for planning both the music and drama programmes this year.