The Handke Project

Première 3. junij 2022, Teatri Oda, Priština

Running time 1 hour 10 minutes. No intermission. 

Director Blerta Neziraj
Dramaturg Biljana Srbljanović
Artistic collaborator Alida Bremer
Set designer Marija Kalabic
Composer Gabriele Marangoni
Choreographer Gjergj Prevazi
Costume designer Blagoj Micevski
Lighting designer Yann Perregaux
Sound designer Leonardo Rubboli (Tempo Reale)
Assistant director Sovran Nrecaj 

Co-producers
Mittelfest & Teatro della Pergola (IT), Theater Dortmund (DE), National Theater Sarajevo & International Theater Festival - Scene MESS (BA)

Cast
Arben Bajraktaraj 
Ejla Bavćić
Adrian Morina
Klaus Martini
Verona Koxha
Anja Drljević

This series of performances is financially supported by Spectacle vivant en Bretagne.

A pan-European ensemble navigate the delicate balance between free speech and social responsibility in theatre through the prism of controversial Nobel laureate Peter Handke. The Handke Project is a theatrical performance about the writer who with his books and opinions has fabricated and overturned facts of the wars in former Yugoslavia; has incited and supported ‘the scorched earth’ ideology; as well as managed to sing praises to militant poets and filmmakers converted into ‘engineers of genocidal projects.’ During the funeral of the war criminal Milosevic, Handke said to the blood-thirsty mass of people that he "does not know the truth" and that is why he is, "there close to Milosevic, close to Serbia." Handke compared the suffering of Serbs to the suffering of Jewish people during Nazism! To create the production, Qendra have assembled a pan-European ensemble of writers, performers and creatives from Kosovo, Italy, Germany, Croatia, Serbia, Bosna and Hercegovina, Albania, France, Macedonia and others, each bringing their own unique perspective to the work. 

Blerta Neziraj (1984), born in Prishtina, has been directing plays for La MaMa - New York, National Theater of Kosovo, Teatro della Pergola - Firence, Volksbühne Berlin, National Experimental Theatre of Albania, Qendra Multimedia (Prishtina), Gjilan City Theatre ect. Plays she directed have been touring to many theaters and festivals, locally and Internationally, including: Piccolo Teatro di Milano, Theatre de Vidy, Lausanne Switzerland; Volkstheater in Vienna, , La MaMa in New York,ect.She is member of Lincoln Center Theatre Directors Lab 2018. For her work as a director, in Kosovo she received several prices and awards, including the Best Theater Director in 2019, in National Theater Festival in Gjilan,Kosovo, the "Best Directing" Award from the Ministry of Culture of Kosovo for the year 2020, and the Best Theater Director award for "The Handke Project" in the National Theater Festival in Ferizaj, Kosovo.

Qendra Multimedia is considered to be one of the most interesting and provocative theatre companies in South Eastern Europe.Qendra produces work in Kosovo but also has co-produced with theater companies including: Volksbühne Berlin; La MaMa New York; Teatro Della Toscana; MESS Festival Sarajevo; Theatre Dortmund; National Theatre of Sarajevo, National Experimental Theater of Albania ect. Qendra's productions have toured Europe and the USA to over 100 fetivals and theater venues.
www.qendra.org