By Annemarie Majlund Jensen
The theatre was almost full on Saturday night at eight o’clock when Broken House, literally set the tone for one of this weekend’s most interesting performances at the Sarajevo War Theatre.
Followed by readings and presentations of several other pieces of song and music the small folk rock ensemble Broken House‘s energetic opening song ‘Darlin Corey’ couldn’t have given the numerous curious spectators of the audience a more sincere introduction to what the evening were to present: A dose of creative and edgy artistic products, including poetry, short prose and sevdalinka performed by young writers and artists of the Sarajevo Writers Workshop.
All with their hearts on the right spot, a total of 11 young poets and singers formed the backbone of the performance at times interrupted by the soulful interlude performance of the 5 musicians and singers of Broken House.
Nourishing the audience (whose crave for alternatives to Saturday nights other big Sarajevo event: the annual Kinđurijada at the Dom Mladih) was more than satisfied with each of the authors presenting one or more pieces of their works – all of which are the outcomes of the Sarajevo Writers Workshop.
Sarajevo Writers Workshop is a creative writing workshop, consisting of a group of young authors and artists all of which work in English, BCS and German language. The workshop was launched at the initiative of American writer Stacy Mattingly (also a member of aforementioned band Broken House). The project is unique in the sense that it seeks to bring in the tradition of creative writing into the already existing creative cultural environment in Sarajevo.
Among the artists of the workshop performing at SARTR this Saturday were (according to this writer) Nermana Česko, with her insisting and wonderfully tenacious reading of the poem Oprostite!, Maire Ryan with the slightly ironic The Passive Criminal as well as the lovely shivering Zora, the latter a composition by Naida Muratović and written by workshop member Eldar Balta. Other performers were, apart from the above mentioned, Matea Šimić, Nedžla Ćemanović-Porča, Kulović Selma, Ivana Krstanović, Zerina Zahirović, Franziska Rauber and Dijala Hasanbegović.
Behind the performance on Saturday has been weeks of participation the workshop, the aim of which is not only practical learning of literary craftsmanship and proper routing of the existing strong creative energy, but also the development of critical spirit of mutual cooperation and understanding of artistic works through criticism and creativity.
The results of this philosophy clearly shined through during Saturday’s show. Eclectic and ambitious, however still with young and talented artistic potentials at its base, Sarajevo Writers Workshop will hopefully remain a permanent component of Sarajevo’s cultural scene.
Source: Fena, Radio Sarajevo.
Review: Saturday at SARTR 8pm/ 3 KM entrance
(photo: Facebook)
