Former Artistic Director: Bitef Festival Faces Program Unworthy of its Name Amidst Troupes' Withdrawals

The 59th Bitef festival is in jeopardy, with five of its seven selected theater troupes withdrawing from the official lineup. Ivan Medenica, a theater critic and former artistic director of Bitef, described the situation as a "positive paradox" that preserves the festival's essence by potentially preventing its occurrence in an adequate form.

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One positive paradox is that in this way, with these events, Bitef preserves its essence. It will not happen or it will happen in some inadequate form, but everything that foreign artists have done and the entire struggle that is happening for Bitef, is in the best Bitef tradition.

Medenica stated that any replacement troupes would be those who would not normally participate, making an artistically relevant international selection impossible on such short notice. He emphasized that with only six weeks until the festival, securing relevant international troupes is unfeasible, especially since such bookings typically require three to four months of planning.

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Whoever would accept to participate now would be someone who would never participate under normal circumstances, and it is impossible to make an artistically relevant selection regarding the international program at this moment.

He further explained that the troupes' withdrawals are political, not artistic, and stem from their support for societal segments fighting for professional autonomy against political pressure. Medenica identified a past censorship case involving a program selected by Miloš Lolić due to the political unsuitability of one author as the direct cause of the current crisis.

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No one has said - neither the selector nor the city secretary for culture - that Bitef will be postponed or that another solution will be sought, given that we all expect it to happen on the scheduled date because we have no other information, the only logical solution is to replace the withdrawn performances with others. That will not be Bitef, that will be a program unworthy of the festival's name.

Medenica urged city authorities, as the festival's founder, to acknowledge the untenable situation and initiate a dialogue. He suggested that an apology for the past censorship incident could pave the way for a healthier discussion about overcoming the crisis, even proposing a postponement of the festival to the end of the year. He stressed that those responsible, particularly the City Assembly which appointed the committee that censored the play, must accept accountability.

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All the troupes withdrew because they support those parts of this society that are endangered and that are fighting for the autonomy of their professions, against political pressures.