I Hate Theater
About the addictive nature of the performing arts.
About the pandemic as an attempt at withdrawal.
About recovery, exhaustion, and despair.
About dedication, love, and passion.
About violence and vanity.
About cancellations — for political and all other reasons.
About vocation as taste, taste as character, and character as destiny.
About the absurdity of imitating a world that is itself absurd.
I HATE THEATER is an original and autobiographical performance by Minja Bogavac, a Serbian playwright and cultural worker. The author of the performance has been working in professional theater since the age of twenty. She is now forty-one.
The performance combines theater theory, practice, and the artist’s personal confession after two decades of theatrical work. It is witty, satirical, and ironic. In its explicit intent to belittle the art of theater and its significance in society, it actually tells a story about play — as the meaning of life, as the most important thing in the world.
MILENA MINJA BOGAVAC (Belgrade, 1982) is a writer, playwright, theater director, screenwriter, poet, activist, drama educator, and cultural worker. She is the Creative Director of the organization Center E8 and the Director of Reflektor Theater, an engaged theater troupe operating under this organization. In addition to her permanent position, she writes, directs, and works as a dramaturg within various institutions and organizations on the independent art scene in Serbia and the region.
JUGOSLAV HADŽIĆ (Smederevo, 1976) is a musician and actor. From 2002 to 2014, he was a permanent member of Dah Theater. In 2014, together with choreographer and director Sanja Krsmanović Tasić, he founded the independent troupe Hleb Theater. He works there as an actor, composer, musician, assistant director, and technician. Since 2015, he has also been a sound designer and sound technician at Bitef Theater. He is the Technical Director of the MATER TERRA Festival and the Dance Festival “Days of Smiljana Mandukić.”
Actors: Milena Minja Bogavac and Jugoslav Hadžić
