About the performance:

Since 2005, a law has been in force in Croatia entitling citizens to a cash refund if they return empty beverage containers to a shop. The measure is meant to encourage them to reduce waste, but for some, collecting returnable packaging has become a livelihood.

In the performance, we follow four young actresses in their roles as four poverty-stricken elder women. The authors created the performance based on testimonies that reflect capitalist reality through personal stories. In a time when it has become “normal” to walk past people digging through containers, the authors raise the question of where we are and where we are going as individuals and as a society, while remaining witty, sympathetic and, above all, human. This is why we recognise ourselves in the performance, they manage that to hit us at the core and to make it our own, regardless of the fact that we do not directly experience the reality of the protagonists in our own everyday lives.

After the performance, there will be a discussion with the authors.

Media reactions:

“True, engaging and powerful.”
Ivana Pejić, Kulturpunkt.hr, 2021

“The socially engaged theatre project Grannies is one of the most interesting programs within the large event Rijeka 2020.”
Maja Hrgović, Arteist.hr

“Make sure you bring tissues to the reprises, you’ll need them for the tears of crying and laughter.”

Audience response

Achievements:

The play was selected as one of five from all over the world for the prestigious Berlin Festival Theatertreffen – Stückemarkt.

About the authors:

Kolektiv Igralke consists of Sendi Bakotić, Ana Marija Brđanović, Anja Sabol and Vanda Velagić. They are graduates of the Acting and Media programme in Rijeka (class of Rade Šerbedžija and Lenka Udovički). They are authors and producers of their own projects, united by friendship, love of acting and socially engaged theatre. Grannies is their second original project after the 2019 theatre cartoon with workshop Plastic Fantastic.

Tjaša Črnigoj is a theatre director who has recently been focusing particularly on documentary theatre. In the 2022/23 season, she is directing a series of lecture-performances about sexual pleasure as a fundamental human right within the framework of human rights, titled Sex Education II (Maska, Mladinsko Theatre and City of Women). Grannies is their first collaboration.

Authors: Sendi Bakotić, Ana Marija Brđanović, Tjaša Črnigoj, Anja Sabol and Vanda Velagić

Director, dramaturge and researcher: Tjaša Črnigoj

Researchers and performers: Sendi Bakotić, Ana Marija Brđanović, Anja Sabol and Vanda Velagić

Social anthropologist: Vanda Velagić

Personal stories shared by: Albina, Ljudmila, Marta and Suzana

Stage design: Paola Lugarić

Costume design: Tanja Blašković

Music selection: authors and Sun Matt

Technical management of the performance: Marin Lukanović

Sound: Sebastijan Tomažin

Visual design: Oleg Morović

Production: Umjetnička organizacija Kolektiv Igralke, Savez udruga Molekula and KUD Transformator

Co-financed by: Rijeka 2020 – European Capital of Culture, Student Cultural center in Rijeka, Public fund for cultural activities of the Republic of Slovenia; production and distribution of the Kolektiv Igralke performances in 2023 is co-financed by Zaklada Kultura nova