‘We all have wings, but they have not been of any avail to us and if we could tear them off, we would do so.’
Franz Kafka
Scenario and directing: Nenad Čolić
Actors: Ranko Trifković, Dejan Stojković, Masa Jelić, Jelena Martinović, Marko Potkonjak
Scenery and costume design: Ivana Čolić
Executive manager: Dubravka Vujinović
Poster and programme design: Ivana Čolić
Text: Franz Kafka: ‘Letter to Father’
Literature: Franz Kafka: ‘Letter to Father’, ‘The Trial’, ‘The Judgement’, letters, diaries, notes
Music: The Rolling Stones; Ludwig van Beethoven; Klezmatics; Son Cubano
Premiere: 25.10.2008. Festival ‘360°’, Bielefeld, Germany
Production: PLAVO theatre
Supported by: Belgrade City Council – Culture Department and Swiss Cultural Program on the Western Balkans
Festivals: ‘360°’ 2008, Bielefeld, Germany; OFF 2009 – Dresden and Chemntiz, Germany; The World as a Place of Truth/Eastern Line 2009 – Wroclaw, Poland; INFANT 2009 – Novi Sad, Serbia; Theatre Specchi e memorie 2009 – Milan, Italy
‘Franz Kafka also wrote a letter to his father, which he never sent. We are not aware, either, whether his father had ever read it. But millions of readers all around the world have read it, millions of fathers, millions of mothers, millions of sons and daughters. Perhaps the letter was intended precisely for them. We know that Kafka copied the letter on a type-writer in the twilight of his life, and he usually did this only when making plans to publish. Kafka wrote many letters. His entire life is one continuous correspondence. However, the Letter to Father is different. The Letter to Father unlocks all the doors. Franz explains in it why his father bore part of the guilt for their estranged relationship. To this day, many ask the same question – at which point does this sorrow and life of loneliness begin and what does this genius mind refer to in his notes, diaries, short stories and novels when describing the world around him that he fails to understand? Yet, the Letter to Father contains the most explicit answer to this question. Addressing his father, at one point Kafka says My writings were about you. Midway through this same letter one will stumble upon a detail that might seem unimportant. Kafka in fact did not like to dance. In the letter he wrote that in his childhood only dancing caused more boredom than the custom of going to the temple. Perhaps it is possible to connect this attitude with the personality of Franz Kafka, but perhaps it was all too late even then, in his childhood. The will was already broken.”
Nenad Čolic, 2008
‘If the most miniscule of details are truly comprehended, then all shall be comprehended.’
Franz Kafka, from Short stories, selected by Ranko Trifković
‘Happiness, it is to be with people.’
Franz Kafka, from Diaries, selected by Dejan Stojković
‘Everything is an exaggeration, only desire is sincere. A passionate desire can never be exaggerated.’
Franz Kafka, from Letters to Milena, selected by Maša Jelić
‘I am too familiar with the horror of solitude, not as much with loneliness caused by solitude, as loneliness between people.’
Franz Kafka, from Letter to Max Brod, selected by Jelena Martinović
‘Only those burdened with a common affliction understand each other.’
Franz Kafka, from Diaries, selected by Marko Potkonjak