A Romance of Three Loves

One of the most poetic Croatian plays, Antun Šoljan’s A Romance of Three Loves, is dubbed as "a sentimental farce" to immediately suggest its clear comic intention and potential. (‘’Even though the anecdote of this sentimental farce dates back to the 17th century (Pierre de Brantome: La vies des dames illustres), the setting of this play is, quite superficially, the time of the Crusades’’). Through a simple plot centered around four characters – The Lady, the Lady’s Maid, the Knight and the Chaplain – Šoljan, using his distinctive modernist poetics, writes an inspired play in verse, with undisguised intertextuality that juggles sentences and thoughts by Shakespeare (The Lady: "To fall, or not to fall, that is the question"), Cervantes, Baudelaire. Šoljan is a language virtuoso who plays with literary heritage and reveals excellent knowledge of medieval troubadour literature, which is seductive both for the actor and the spectator. However, it is not just the form that is interesting in A Romance of Three Loves. The play poses questions about "love and its creative and destructive force, its spiritual essence and carnal nature, questions about the rapture of love and pain, happiness and madness." Šoljan asks both himself and us whether the quest for one’s self-integrity can be completed in another person, finding existential fear and discomfort on the other side of "Molieresque lightness".

‘’’’A Romance of Three Loves’’ is Boris Svrtan’s contribution to the youthful and playful theatre, which is free from all pretentiousness. There is no doubt that the audience will line-up to see this production and they will innocently enjoy it and demand for more!’’ (Kristina Kegljen, 24express)

‘’Boris Svrtan presented an exceptional play, which was written at a time when Miroslav Krleža dominated Croatian stages, and blended it with the mitspiel characteristic of Branko Gavella’s school of directing and pedagogy. (...) Igor Kovač plays the part of the Knight by interchanging the masks of the modern musician and the medieval knight reminiscent of Don Quixote... Instead of relying on experience and old age, the young Nikola Baće bases his role of the Chaplain on the resonant asides... Gavella Theatre’s most recent acquisition, Martina Čvek, after playing a memorable role in the production As It Is in Heaven, dazzles with a different acting transformation – she uses her rich alto and a covert mitspiel with the youngest actress in the cast to blend the Lady’s introversion and her suppressed sexuality. The young Tena Nemet Brankov, Gavella Theatre’s scholarship holder, shines in the role of the Lady’s maid. I can’t remember the last time I saw such a young and talented actress...’’ (Mira Muhoberac, Croatian Radio, Channel 3, Theatralia)

‘’There is much symbolism here, many layers, much philosophy...the text of the play is so beautiful in itself, as if it doesn’t need anything else. (...) This version of Šoljan’s play will become even more powerful when it moves from Gavella’s Main stage to the smaller stage, much more chamber-like, which is to be built in the foyer of the theatre.’’ (Bojana Radović, Večernji list)