The Kosovo Albania Theatre Showcase 2024 – A Review of “The Internationals”  

The Director, a positive character

The Critic  is a sitter on fences and neither a positive nor negative character 

The Writer, a positive character

The Critic’s Inner Voice, a negative character, or the voice of the wise

The Audience, neither positive nor negative

locations: this review takes place at the international locations of the  Tulla Culture Centre, Tirana,  Albania, the virtual cloud (wherever that is), and a small cute cafe in south London, United Kingdom.

Please imagine the Kosovar national anthem playing before this review (if you don’t know what it sounds like please use the Ecosia search engine to Ecosia it)

1. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 

 This review is attempting to echo the style of how The Internationals is written i.e in loosely connected vignettes/sections full of irony, and cynicism..(it’s not another empty review promising a lot of intelligent things)

 No one must plagiarise this review

 No one must question its integrity

 or change anything in it

 nor question the “international” Critic’s right to write it

This review is sponsored by the Albanian government who paid for The Critic’s expenses and four-star accommodation in Tirana

2. The Critic(s)

Please remember that critics are sensitive beings, that they question the need for their profession (and thus themselves) every single day and constantly consider “erasing Keep Notes on their phone” or “shutting the door” and announcing to the world that they are done (with theatre). Please also remember that no matter what kind of a play they will review, they make it about them, even during a war, strife, and upsetting elections. Sometimes, they are even in the play (sorry, wrong review).  And there are no other ways at all to write reviews. Definitely not.

3. History of the play

This play was written by the playwright, Jeton Neziraj, when he was a young man. I’m just saying he was younger than he is now when he wrote it. Does this mean it is no longer relevant? You decide.

4. Little dialogue between The Critic and The Audience

What’s the story morning glory?  (of the play) 

Glad you asked. But it’s not a story, it’s a birth. It’s about the birth of nations. You know, like Kosovo, Greece… the continued rebirth of the United States of America… But specifically, of Kosovo, don’t forget that.

But aren’t births stories? Aren’t they the only stories worth telling that we tell over and over again?

How right you are! I never thought of it that way before. Shall we continue and not waste time? Such as, let’s hear it from the POV of The Critic… i.e.…me…

Can’t wait…take it away…

5. Project “superficial view of the show”

The Internationals is not a new play, it used to be known as Carla del Ponte trinkt in Pristina einen Vanilla Chai Latte* and is a series of vignettes. And Carla del Ponte, the former war crimes prosecutor, and her world-stage pals Bill Clinton, Mother Teresa, Madeleine Albright, and Marina Abramovic, are still in this newly named play which is about “Project Kosovo” when “the unemployed and the idle, the adventurers and the despairing Set off for Kosovo in 1999”. The mission was called “capitalist humanism.” Directed here in the Kosovo Albania Showcase** in Tirana by Greek theatremaker Aktina Stathaki*** this production follows the big players and the big events such as 1)Kosovo’s birth, 2)the decision to send in the bombers over Belgrade, 3)counting the number of dead like counting sweets, 4)Lola running (and running and running) so that the man dies (unlike in the film) 5)the murky tricky business of organ donation and its links to illegal trafficking 6)many more things.

During it we get to see that Madeleine and Carla and Bill et al, are only like you and me – really they are – just humans who are as bizarre and absurd as ourselves just trying to get along and make things better and being dedicated to one’s values at all costs, even if, you know, they end up being quite negative.  We see that they are just caught up in it all. Like in Lola’s vignette. Like Lola’s policeman in Lola’s vignette, who as we see, can’t act freely to save the life of a man who donated his kidney and who is now dying in an ambulance which is being blocked by Lola’s marathon because Lola must run and finish the race in Kosovo because she is a woman and there must be a woman finisher in this new, independent Kosovo because that is more important than an individual’s life (breathe). Not that any of this has anything to do with free will and determinism, like the film. I mean the randomness of the vignettes speak for themselves on this. So when Madeleine in Aktina’s production is directed to sniff US flags instead of flowers (as it says in the text)  when ordering General Jackson to drop the bombs on Belgrade – she isn’t sniffing the money opportunity. She is not thinking about the possible emerging markets when she later becomes an international consultant in the Albright Stonebridge Group at all. It’s just random. A random direction. And when the birth of Kosovo is imagined like the birth of Jesus and Aktina decides that the telephone should sport the Euro flag wrapped around it no one is thinking of Greece or anything…and no one is thinking, they are not even laughing when statistics about the dead in Kosovo are hammered into a laptop, and someone spots an opening to promote a book to the parents of the 3,000 dead children and Marina Abramovic comes on with Ulay and they do a scene about organ donation although it’s really about their break-up because Aktina directs them to keep trying to hold hands across the table…(this last sentence must be said all in one breath) ps I think this scene is trying to say how up their own xxx Ulay and Marina are and that… that live performance, performance art is not real at all and is certainly not of any interest, especially when it says it is. We see this because when the audience is herded by the actors away from Marina and Ulay and back into the site-specific cabaret area we see a real horrified German Lady sitting amongst us and “horror is in her eyes.” Well, it says so in the text and the actor acts it, and… this play is real. Absolutely. Just as some of the stuff it is based on is real. And happened to someone. 

6. The Critic emails The Director some big questions/ or let’s hear about the show from the creatives

Email communication BEGINS

I wondered what the attraction is for you in choosing it from a directing/dramaturgical POV. And from a historical perspective concerning Greece’s 2015 crisis? (subtext please do the work for me here)

Upon my first reading of the play I was attracted by its openness, the freedom it allows the director’s imagination. There are no characters, no locales, and no stage directions so everything is up for inventing. And yet the writing is so alive that I could “hear” and “see” it already in that very first reading of it.

It may be one of Jeton’s older political plays, yet from my point of view it is very timely, especially in a European context, as it speaks about the birth of a nation and all the factors and parameters that make it happen. In a Europe presently ridden by nationalism, it is important to be reminded of the artificiality in the making of nation-states, their constructedness, and the calculations and interests that go into it. The play juxtaposes the need to belong, the need for a people’s collective identity to be affirmed and acknowledged but it does so not on nationalist lines but based on the haves and have-nots, the winners and losers of history and that’s something that can resonate with a lot of peoples across the Balkans and beyond.

The parallels with Greece of course are very stark. Not just for Greece post-2015 but for Greece as it has been historically constituted as a nation-state,  a “bastard” between the Balkans, Middle East, and Europe, always looking up to the West to construct its identity and sense of self, historically under the influence and control of the  Euro-American axis.  The crisis from 2009 onwards only exacerbated some of those realities and characteristics. There is a line in the play by a person who describes the situation in the country that says “They cause car accidents but no one ever goes to court”. When we were performing the show in Athens, we had this tragic train crash in the area of Tempi in central Greece, where over 50 people, mostly students in their 20s, got killed. The reasons for the train crash had to do with the privatization of the train system and fatal omissions in maintenance on the part of the government. Yet no one was brought to court, no one has been held accountable for this tragedy. I think this sums up all the parallels between the two countries and how the play resonates with us in Greece. 

Can you also give some notes on this from a Greek Albanian’s POV? i.e. from their responses to it when it premiered in Greece?

One of the greatest successes for us when we performed the play in Athens was the large number of Albanians – most of them first-generation immigrants- who came to the show and enthusiastically embraced it. I think the prevailing feeling for them was a sense of pride and joy in the fact that for the first time they were seeing, in their adopted country, a play that spoke about them, their region, their reality, and their history. In Athens, we would start the play with the Kosovar anthem and invite the audience to stand, and oftentimes Albanians in the audience would do it with a great sense of pride. Some of them, having lived through the atrocities, were at first resistant to the satire, until they could grasp the full scope of the play’s political commentary. My impression was that they were not so much interested in drawing parallels between Greece and Kosovo as the Greek audiences were, but to have an opportunity to speak about their country, their identity, their collective trauma or aspiration and have them acknowledged publicly in the context of a Greek performance.

In section 1. the text states to be respectful and not change things, which of course means you can. Most of section 16. Marina Abramovic in conversation with Mother Teresa was cut and the dialogue about art, taking care of each other, andthe differences between theatre and art was transposed to audience provocations with the performers…audience members were asked if they knew where quotes were from, or whether they agreed with them. Was this a comment about context? Or that sometimes artists say drivel and at other times, are profound and have meaning?

This is a peculiar scene in the play. It’s just quote after quote for about three pages. Even if some of them are true or even profound, the sheer compilation of them ends up highlighting the platitudes you hear from well-respected media personalities, which sound even more absurd and self-indulgent set against the background of an actual war where people die. We had difficulty staging this scene with the actresses – in my mind, the entire scene was just “words, words, words” from disembodied voices and this of course is hard for any actor to support – the actor’s job is to give meaning to what they say and the compilation of these quotes are precisely, in my interpretation at least,  the death of meaning. So at some point, I had this idea, what if we multiply the words, and the voices, by spreading them all over the theatre and having them coming from all directions – that is: the audience. At first, the idea was to stage it like a TV game where people would have to guess who the quote comes from. Gradually, the reading of the quotes became more of an opportunity to have discussions with the audience. In Athens, this became one of the most cherished, fun, and oftentimes very moving scenes of the show (in Tirana we chose to keep it short). People were shy at first but then they would open up and use the opportunity to speak their minds about art, life, marriage, love, and war, they would sometimes argue with one another or share thoughts and information about themselves. It was also extremely interesting to hear the Albanian audiences during this scene, who would take the opportunity to share insights and information about the war or their former lives back home, really moving moments from people who might not have the opportunity often to speak publicly, in front of a mixed – Greek and Albanian- audience about their lives and their thoughts.  So in the end, this compilation of platitudes became interesting when used to instigate discussions among the audience. 

Continuing to think about the audience, I am interested in the audience-performer dynamics when the actors playing Marina and Ulay move them into a separate room and treat the audience almost like school kids – is it about turning the tables on who is in control, who is being watched, who is directing – this scene seemed to deliberately disrupt the audience/performer dynamic and turn the tables on the audience. 

The staging of this scene was partly the result of the space where we first performed the piece in Athens which is a gallery space with different rooms. We decided that the scene of the Marina-Ulay performance would be in one of the gallery rooms separate from the show’s “main” stage. 

I see the whole scene as a commentary on the hypocrisy and pretentiousness of the art establishment and the staging serves to amplify that: the audience is invited to move around, is prepared for something big, and in the end, nothing happens. This is, unfortunately, a very common experience when we go to the theatre, to performances or exhibitions at least in Greece: we go from spectacle to spectacle but are rarely moved – mentally, emotionally, ideologically. 

Email communication ENDS

7. When the critic uncertainly emails the playwright 

uh…(in an email)… why did you change the name of the play to The Internationals? Was it because.. uh ..you are dedicating the play towards all these uh international peace people, etc (duh). Uh. 

8. The playwright responds:

The original production, directed by Jochen Roller, was touring Kosovo, North Macedonia, and Germany. And in all those countries, the ‘German’ original title of the play worked very well, especially as “Carla Del Ponte” was well-known and quite famous back then. Indeed, when we played at the FFT Düsseldorf, it was said that she might come to watch our show 🙂 But, soon after, when I was circulating the play to non-German people, it was obvious that the title did not have that sort of resonance. Therefore, when I published the play, I decided to change it to The Internationals, which I believe captures best what the play is about.

9. Considering the email response 

The Critic thinks and then –

Because, uh, like when Carla’s brother is trying to get an illegal kidney transplant and she, as a former war crimes prosecutor, threatens to denounce him to the police because she can’t believe what is happening to HER beloved Kosovo and then someone there and then offers him a kidney on LIVE TV, like on LIVE TV human to human and she does not know what to do? You know, because of her, uh…international principles… or uh, Madeleine Albright and her Stonebridge Group..?

10. The Audience is ecstatic and demands a Q&A

I am on my feet! Bravo! Bravo! This deserves an actual standing ovation. You did a lot of work, Critic! Almost as much work as all the creatives did on the review. But is it right to include a performance of the show you didn’t see, like the one in Athens? Or are you trying to add more context?

Funny you should ask that Audience! I am trying to add more context.

But by just cutting and pasting The Director’s answers? And The Writer’s? It’s a bit lazy, isn’t it?

Isn’t it better that The Director and The Writer can speak honestly?

Um. Well, I think you’re masking you know… you shouldn’t need to chat with them to understand it better…

Sorry? Isn’t my job to understand it better however it is I understand it better.

I think your job is just to review the show you saw. And nothing else. With no other input, that’s how it’s always been done.

Hmmmm. Not sure that’s enough anymore these days…

During this period of the review, the US national anthem and the anthem of the European Union should play at the same time in a kind of audio battle that becomes an unbearable mess of sound.

11. The final final scene: A cute little cafe in south London where they charge £3.8o for a cappuccino (and it’s not even a large one) and which is the scene of The Critic’s angst and where The Critic’s Inner Critic questions if they should write the review like this

Are you sure you are reading the show correctly? Are you sure it’s really OK to do a review like this? Isn’t it a bit supercilious and all? And is there enough exposition? 

Heavy and prolonged pause. And then a sigh. A bit of hair-tearing. Anxious look at everyone busy talking about the United States of America’s election… no one cares…

No, no, I’m not sure about any of this, I completely lack conviction. 

…Oh darling. Well, don’t victimize yourself, it’s done now…And break a leg, my dear…

No thanks, I’d rather not.

Why are you so literal? I don’t think you’re suited to this profession…

12. Some explanations

This is a play of vignettes called The Internationals by Jeton Neziraj, a most well-known Balkan playwright who said he was a young man when he wrote it… the playwright meant that in those days he was more cynical and dared more then than he does today (up for debate). The play still has relevance to today’s times and, in The Internationals, there are the themes and preoccupations that turn up in greater depth in Neziraj’s later plays – performance politics /political performance/ governance and artistic pretension and dictatorship (Six against Turkey), explorations contrasting the Verfremdungseffekt with personal and close up character portraits (Negotiating Peace) the unexpected places where one can find theatrical redemption (The Handke Project and A.Y.L.A.N) and …and…

13. … and just go to the Kosovo Theatre Showcase yourself next year to see the plays. OK?

*The play Carla del Ponte trinkt in Pristina einen Vanilla Chai Latte and The Internationals is the same and is written by Kosovo playwright Jeton Neziraj of Qendra Multimedia.

**The Kosovo Theatre Showcase is organized by Qendra Multimedia and is normally held annually in late October in Prishtina in Kosovo. However this year, the showcase was held in collaboration with Albania, more specifically Albania’s National Theatre and The National Experimental Theatre of Albania.

*** This production of The Internationals was directed by Aktina Stathaki and premiered in Greece where the audience consisted of a large Albanian Greek community who have made Greece their home. It was produced by Between the Seas Mediterranean Performance Lab.