Heart Larger Than Hands

On the director-dramaturge treatment of the text (production based on the play ‘’Heart Larger Than Hands’’)

Every text is an adventure, a starting point, a means to express: a moment of life, oneself, someone by your side, ourselves. One just (!) needs to know how – needs to feel it, needs to see it. The production ‘’Heart Larger Than Hands’’ is the result of one small group’s work. The group that, at a certain point (in, probably, completely different life circumstances), agreed to think in the same direction: to delve into the text, then to delve into another (at first a completely unknown) person and into themselves. They tried to understand all of that together and then went on - to create. Based on the basic dramaturgical principles of a play, the text of the play developed, on the one hand, from the actors’ improvisations (respecting in the process the personalities of the actors) and on the other hand it expanded the assumed plot and dramaturgically filled the ellipsis of the text – in order to explore the arches of the faces, of the story and of the emotions; in order to tell a common story, based on the existing one; in order to blend, at a certain moment, a certain place, a certain theatre, on a specific year, certain human sensibilities which (perhaps, indeed just perhaps) cannot be blended; in order to experience, live, feel.

‘’This is a small production on the new stage in Gavella Theatre. It is well-directed and well-performed. It is a production that ought to be recommended and that will be loved by all who have walked in the shoes of its protagonists, all who have cheated and have been cheated on.’’ (Bojana Radović, Večernji list)

‘’Barbara Nola, Hrvoje Klobučar, Tara Rosandić and Andrej Dojkić convincingly and extraordinarily precisely go through complex Strindbergian battles of mutual distancing and approaching, which is something the audience welcomed with waves of applauses.’’ (Nataša Govedić, Novi list)

‘’A very vivacious and convincing play premiered on the newly opened Stage 121 in Gavella Theatre on Tuesday night. The name of the play is ‘’Heart Larger Than Hands’’ and it is directed by Tamara Damjanović, who presented the audience with a story of a bizarre love square between two married couples of the younger generation, who during their struggle to find love lose themselves, their partners and their lovers. (...) The version performed in Gavella Theatre is somewhat different from the original, because it, partly, blends actors’ improvisations, so the play has a subtle Zagreb-like feel. The play is especially enriched by the wide range of nuanced emotions and the actors’ own experiences.’’ (Nina Ožegović, T-portal)