Peer Gynt

Such an ambitious, complex and challenging assignment, as is the staging of Peer Gynt, has been entrusted to the Macedonian director Aleksandar Popovski, who has left behind, during his previous ''stay'' in Gavella Theatre, Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, a production that was in the meantime extremely well received both by critics and the audience, so far winning 11 awards on festivals in Croatia and abroad. Popovski's eclecticism and his ability to approach a literary subject without fear, playing freely with the motifs that the text ''lets him use'' are all signs that with this play too Gavella Theatre will embark upon an exciting and imaginative theatrical journey. After all, there is no other way, for ''in his airy ruthlesness, adventurous egotism and attractive immorality, Peer Gynt is the Don Quixote of free enterprise'', a hero of a text that holds in its many layers ''so many generally acceptable characteristics that the Japanese audience declared it 'typically Japanese'''.

''The basic idea that suggests itself after the premiere of Ibsen's Peer Gynt at ''Gavella'' theatre is: how little it takes to achieve a true theatrical magic. All it takes to a good and prudent director is a wonderful text and exquisite actors.'' (Bojana Radović, ''Večernji list'')

''Peer Gynt is at the same time a fairy tale-like and a tragically adult play, whose language (translated by Jakša Sedmak and Tomislav Ladan and edited also by Tonko Loza and, my impression is, the actors themselves) enthuses and intoxicates; the fact that didn't scare away ''Gavella's'' actors this time. Their cooperation with Aleksandar Popovski, mediated by the dramaturge Dubravko Mihanović, is one of the performative focal points of the current theatrical season. I predict that the production will appeal to an enormous span of viewer generations (from seven to seventy-seven) and that there'll even be those who will see the performance again and again. If for no other reason then for the masterful performance of Ozren Grabarić. (...) Grabarić's interpretation of Peer Gynt is a great artistic achievement, but that wonderful role wouldn't be possible without the truly excellent acting partners, first and foremost Alma Prica and Dijana Vidušin.'' (Nataša Govedić, ''Novi list'')

''The Macedonian director Aleksandar Popovski (b.1969) has did it once again in ''Gavella''. His direction of Peer Gynt, the last play in verses by the famed Norwegian Henrik Ibsen, is a well-rounded and inspiring performance.'' (Tomislav Čadež, ''Jutarnji list'')

''Grabarić's concentrated tightrope act, where the joy of life and the torments of thinking about that same life intertwine in perfectly balanced proportions, really does capture with its roundedness and the virtuosity of the actors' performances. (...) NUMEN designer studio has once again worked out an impressive and functional set, turning from the characteristic verticals to a cotton horizontal of white sheets which played the part of Haeggstadt's snows and the potent driving force of the play on stage. Marita Ćopo's costumes have craftily emphasized the heterogeneity of the director's conception, whereas the music of the Foltin group effectively underlined the enchanting elements of the production.'' (Matko Botić, Kulisa.eu)

''Aleksandar Popovski has proven to be a theatre artist who is capable of turning a classical piece into a viewable, even compassionate contemporariness. Which, if only for a moment, means conquering death. At least that of the theatre.'' (Igor Ružić, Radio 101)