The Fourth Sister

''The play by Janusz Glowacki, the Polish writer who resides in New York, is a dark-humoured display of a transition society that has swapped communism for tycoon capitalism; where people are trying to find a way out from the emotional ruins and twisted moral and ethic values.'' (Gordana Ostović, ''Vijenac''). This was written after the play's staging in Dubrovnik, which was done by the Dubrovnik Summer Festival ensemble and the ADA's Master workshop; the director was Ivica Boban.

The blending of Chekhov's classic ''Three Sisters'' with the ironic interpretation of the Cinderella fairy tale produced a play in which Glowacki is ruthlessly dealing with the transition chaos of post-communist Russia common to all the countries that ''have smelled'' capitalism and ravenously started to consume it, losing themselves in its alluring emptiness. Learning from the experiences of both the Western and Eastern cultures, the Polish novelist, essayist and dramatist opened the cracks of a society that lost the values it believed in and still hasn't found new ones.

Samo M. Strelec, the Slovenian director with great experience and numerous directings in his Gavella Theatre oeuvre, presented ''The Fourth Sister'' as a play in which the stage and the audience do not want to be separated, where illusion and reality live a single, common life.

You can read the interview with Samo M. Strelec here:
http://www.teatar.hr/vijesti/drama/184

''There hasn't been ovations this loud after the première for a long time and, equally as much, such a good performance hasn't been seen on this stage.''

...
When such an ensemble, safely and meticulously guided by the director, plays with the text, performing it, but at the same time leaving a creative space between themselves and the text through the communication with the audience, a true production gem is created. The actors could truly be panegyrized here. Nataša Janjić gives a remarkable interpretation of the florescent adolescent Tanya, Jelena Miholjević and Bojana Gregorić, as the other two sisters, have minimally built their complex, emotional world and Ivica Vidović's cameo panache of the existentialist alcoholic is, simply put, brilliant.'' (Jasen Boko, ''Slobodna Dalmacija'')

''The Slovene director, Samo M. Strelec, has wonderfully staged ''The Fourth Sister'' by the contemporary Polish classic, Janusz Glowacki.''

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Jelena Miholjević, Bojana Gregorić and Nataša Janjić fantastically complement each other, because their age suits their roles. Also, the way the director imagined the actresses to perform the roles has apparently been enticeful and productive for all of them.'' (Tomislav Čadež, ''Jutarnji List'')

''Hrvoje Klobučar gives a remarkable performance, his duet with Nataša Janjić is brilliant, Nenad Cvetko is fantastic...In spite of the usual critical pettiness, this is a good and an important play. Definitely worth seeing!'' (Želimir Ciglar, ''Večernji List'')

''In the role of 'the fourth sister', or the adopted Kolya, Nenad Cvetko has given the best performance of his career: a modest, insightful and selfless hero of the story, whose vulnerability is ideally mixed with spite and great emotional competence.'' (Nataša Govedić, ''Novi List'')