About the production
Mr. R. lives in the West Germany at the beginning of 70ies. He has a family he loves, a job he cares for, his apartment, and a TV he frequently watches. Every day, he listens to TV news about great successes and the politicians’ optimism. His friends and relatives come to his home. Mr. R. has ambitions, worries and memories. He is of good health and has a rich love life. One day, however, Mr. R, suddenly…
Authors
RAINER WERNER FASSBINDER born on 31st May, 1945 in Bad Wörishofen, but spent almost his entire life in Munich. He started writing stories and poems, and staging theatre plays very early. He made his first film at the age of 20. He tried three times to enroll the Film Academy but was rejected.
In 1967, he joined action-theatre in Munich, where he was a director, actor and a writer, and soon became the troupe leader. When the troupe fell apart, Fassbinder and artists who shared the same ideas founded a new one called Anti-theater. The period between 1969 and 1976, was the most productive in his short life. Although exciting, his theatre career (performances in Munich, Bremen, Bochum, Nurnberg, Berlin, Hamburg, and Frankfurt, where he managed Theater am Turm for two years together with Kurt Raab and Roland Petri) seems insignificant in comparison with the amazing success he achieved on film and TV. As of 1976. Fassbinder is an international art star; he wins the awards at relevant film festivals, has premieres and retrospectives in Paris, New York, Los Angeles. World premieres, alongside the first study on his artwork which was published in London, made him famous. Fassbinder was the initiator of the New German film. His unexpected death in 1982, marked a symbolic end of one of the most riveting and most original periods in German cinema.
The film by Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Michael Fengler Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? was made in 1969. It has won many prizes, among which also the Golden Bear at Berlin Film Festival.
BOBO JELČIĆ was born in Mostar. Graduated in theatre direction from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb. Teaches theatre direction at the Academy of Dramatic Art. Productions at ZYT: The Other Side, The Seagull, The Store Window, Allons Enfants (Dubrovnik Summer Festival); Tihi obrt / Silent Turnaround (ADU - Academy of Dramatic Arts); Ko rukom odneseno / Swept by Hand (Culture of Change); Na kraju tjedna / At the End of the Week (CNT, Zagreb); Govori glasnije / Speak Louder (Kerempuh Theatre). Jelčić has often worked together with Nataša Rajković and The Store Window was performed at Bitef 2011.
This is the first time he is directing a production at the Yugoslav Drama Theatre as well as in Serbia. He is also a film director and his filmography includes All That You Know About Me, A Stranger and Transmania.
He has received a number of awards for his work.
From the reviews
In his signature approach, minimalistic, fast-paced, madly emphasized and metaphorical, Jelčić stages the Fassbinder’s text about loneliness, abandonment and confusion of an individual in the capitalism in the past but, as it turns out, in the present as well.
Ivan Medenica, Danas
Jelčić overlaps the atmosphere typical for the Germany back in the days, and the one typical of the present moment, making us unsure if the protagonists live in Germany where old furniture gets slowly replaced by the modern one, or in the present-day Serbia where people dig out old, shabby but reliable armchairs from the basements and attics, to put them where new but low-quality furniture used to be, armchairs now collapsing like everything else that surrounds us.
Aleksandar Milosavljević, Radio-Beograd
Based on the research with actors, as well as on the absurd, self-irony, and expansion of stage art, the performance Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? reflects a multi-layered disintegration of a contemporary individual. It is based on shattering theatre illusions and searching for new theatrical paths.
Ana Tasić, Politika
Jelčić introduces structural distancing into the performance by the use of numerous non-conventional solutions in directing, based on a unique approach towards genre syncretism (which makes him one of the most original authors today), thus “spilling” the painful reality in a theatrically seductive way, allowing actors a lot of space for wonderful creations, the space best used by Boris Isaković.
Željko Hubač, Danas
