Zagrebačko kazalište mladih & Montažstroj (HR)
Youth Without God
A theatre project by Borut Šeparović based on motifs of the eponymous novel by Ödön von Horváth and inspired by Franco Bifo Berardi’s socio-philosophical study Heroes: Mass Murder and Suicide
Schedule
Opening night February 22nd 2019, Zagreb Youth Theatre
Running time 1 hour 45 minutes. No intermission.
Discussion after performance within Student Theatre program at 9.00 pm on Small stage SNT Maribor.
Concept and director Borut Šeparović
Script Borut Šeparović, Ivana Vuković
Dramaturg Borut Šeparović, Ivana Vuković
Stage movement Damir Klemenić
Set designers Borut Šeparović, Konrad Mulvaj
Video and multimedia Montažstroj & Mitropa
Sound and music Montažstroj, Michel Corrette, Antonio Vivaldi
Costume designer Marta Žegura
Lighting designer Aleksandar Čavlek
Sound designer Bruno Fretze
Stage manager Petra Prša
Cast
Rakan Rushaidat
Ugo Korani
Boris Barukčić
Lucija Dujmović
Ivana Gulin
Ivan Pašalić
Bernard Tomić
Borut Šeparović's theatre project Youth Without God could also be defined as an intertextual theatrical intervention or even a fusion of two canonical texts – the eponymous novel by Ödön von Horváth (Jugend ohne Gott), written in 1938, at a crucial historical moment. which remains marked by the irreversible rise of National Socialism and the Third Reich, and a 2015 socio-philosophical study Heroes: Mass Murders and Suicide by Franco "Bifo" Berardi. The fundamental question posed by author and director Šeparović is: "What arises from the shade, or rather, from the void of the interspace of the ideology of a political system in relation to the agents of its paradigm?" The triggering event of Horváth's novel – a schoolteacher reprimanding a student for his "politically incorrect" commentary, and a group attack on a helpless student in the public eye – thus raises a number of questions that have been posed by the agents of every paradigm since Plato's Republic: "What will this generation be like? Will they be strong or just cruel? Ödön von Horváth saw a hope, a possible exit form this conflicting vortex of ‘void’ – especially when there is no authority left, no God above us – in the young people who read forbidden books and refused to join mass military parades. However, Franco Berardi rejects Horvath’s blind hope and work and proposes an utterly pessimistic conclusion: democracy will never be established, and capitalism will never be defeated. When there is no more opposition, there is only one question left to ponder on: "What to do when nothing can be done?"
