Festival “Democracy 2.0” // DAY 2 – 18. Feb. 2021 // Programme

This lecture is imagined as a mini presentation of the way we constructed and conceived The Chorus in Oresteia 1/4, starting from one of the main points of The Chorus Project:  THE CITIZEN AS A PERFORMER. We based our thesis on some of our previous research, where we identified the performative elements in political protests through Richard Schechner’s continuum from “AS” to “IS” performance, Michael Kirby’s “Happenings” and Erving Goffman’s “The Presentation Of Self In Everyday Life”.

Democracy cannot dwell in a system where there are no fundamental postulates of law enforcement, which enables limitless power to the ruling class. The people must fight to regain those postulates, or to join them. As long as we take no responsibility, we will establish no democracy.

Moreover, we cannot discuss democracy in 21st-century-Europe when whole territories that geographically belong to Europe are not part of the Union, adding the fact that the neoliberal logic of ruling in the Union itself persistently deepens the social discrepancy.

Finally, it really doesn’t matter whether Orestes slaughters Clytemnestra, because regardless the result, a new law will be devised to protect the interests of the ruling class as it will be later done in Oresteia.

The digital adaptation of Oresteia ¼  is based on the aesthetics that were already established in the play: minimalist décor, black box empty space, minimalist film acting and Facebook as a medium through which we represent The Chorus projected on a silver screen. In this new version we use a combination of film techniques and theatrical symbolism. More precisely, we can define this digital version of Oresteia ¼ as not theatrical, but theater-film.

Director: Ivica Dimitrijevic / Ass director: Jasmina Vasileva / Dramaturg: Biljana Krajcevska / Scenography and stage design: Kristina Bozurska / Music: Jane Trajkovski / Editing: Martin Ivanov / Director of photography and camera: Atanas Velkovski / Ass. director of photography and camera: Marjan Petkovski / Gaffer: Zlatko Dimeski / Sound recording: Krunislav Cvetkovski / Technicians: Erik Omeragic , Kiril Donev  / Producer: Filip Nikolovski

Cast: Orestes: Stefan Vujisic, Electra: Nina Elzeser, Clytemnestra: Dragana Kostadinovska, Leader of the chorus: Zarko Jovanovic, Aegistus: Dimitrija Doksevski

Duration: 42 min

A production of Mladinski Kulturen Centar (Youth Cultural Center Skopje) MKC Skopje, Northern Macedonia