Glembajevi PROZA, Vol. 2: Teatru &TD's final premiere of the season

Zagreb's &TD Theatre is set to stage its final premiere of the season, "Glembajevi PROZA, Vol. 2," on Thursday, June 18. The production, an authorial project by Saša Božić, Jelena Miholjević, and Borna Baletić, will be performed in the foyer of the theatre's Great Hall at 8 PM, with encore performances scheduled for June 19 and 20.

This new work continues the exploration of Miroslav Krleža's Glembaj family saga, building upon the first part's dissection of the family's cold genealogy. Božić and Miholjević have joined forces with Borna Baletić to merge drawing-room prose with elements of stand-up comedy, creating a unique theatrical experience.

The play "Glembajevi PROZA, Vol. 2" actively manipulates the audience's perspective, shifting them from passive observers to voyeurs and active participants. Krleža's literary style is reinterpreted through sharp, darkly humorous scenes that delve into the Glembaj family's "love woes." The production focuses on two of Krleža's classic short stories: "The Love of Marcel Faber for Laura Varonigova," which precisely analyzes the idealized, nascent feelings of love in young people, and "Baroness Lenbachova," a dark psychological study of impending romantic collapse and emotional breakdown in middle-aged individuals.

Directed with a radical departure from traditional dramatic adaptations, the production introduces the concept of "performance reading." The act of reading Krleža's prose becomes a dynamic stage event. With microphones in hand and a finger on the trigger of irony, Miholjević and Baletić deconstruct the rhythm of Krleža's sentences and the romantic topoi of his prose live, in front of and with the audience. The play offers a poetic yet brutally witty anatomy of toxic bourgeois relationships, questioning whether Krleža's characters truly loved or were merely seeking an audience for their private, hysterical performances.