Belgrade Drama Theatre

Slobodan Stojanović

Više od igre (More Than a Game)

Direction: Ivan Vuković

Text adaptation: Đorđe Kosić

Stage design: Marija Kalabić

Costume design: Dragica Laušević

Composer: Irena Popović Dragović

Stage movement: Maja Kalafatić

Stage speech: Đorđe Markovic

Cast: Miodrag Radonjić, Anja Jovanović, Milan Čučilović, Milorad Damjanović, Andrej Šepetkovski, Milan Kolak, Ljubomir Bulajić, Daniel Sič, Ivan Zarić, Stefan Radonjić, Nenad Gvozdenović, Rista Milutinović, Arsenije Arsić, Aleksandar Jovanović, Nikola Mijatović, Jana Milosavljević, Jovo Maksić, Stefan Starčević, Bojana Stojković, Anja Josifovski, Anja Ćurčić, Vukašin Jovanović, Ljubinka Klarić

Slobodan Stojanović is endowed with a one-of-a-kind creative capability to breathe life into profoundly nuanced and multifaceted characters. Each and every one of his characters, even those that one might easily write off as boring clerks or ruthless policemen, is given a human dimension, becoming relatable as well as comprehensible to us. Herein lies Stojanović’s great strength: he portrays Gradina as a vibrant community. In his mind, it is a place where notwithstanding all differences and conflicts, the citizens remain interconnected through mutual care for one another and empathy. What is uncharacteristic in the depiction of this region, is the writer’s poetics which is devoid of cynicism and irony. Contrastingly, the humor stems from the absurdity of life, that does not cloud over the beauty of living.
Text adaptation of a famous TV series
More Than Just a Game posed a distinct dramaturgical challenge, given its profound impact on film as well as the popular culture in the region of the Balkans. The original script had to be carefully adapted, so as to give us the three immensely distinct plays. What is important to mention is that each of these plays could be seen as functioning completely independently, yet together they form a harmonious and meaningful whole. In making the adaptation, the director Ivan Vuković and I endeavored to preserve Stojanović’s unique poetics. Wherever the material called for rewriting , we drew inspiration from the remainder of the author’s original opus- for instance in further exploring the depths of the female characters and shaping the play’s third act, which is based upon Stojanović’s unfinished script.