A Grain of Salt or Happy Birthday, Marina

About the performance

The new text by Neda R. Bric intertwines two worlds, Slovenian and Bosnian, in a maze of stories from both countries. Stories that are searching for junctures and differences and in the end, always come down to a common denominator: human intimacy, which is the same everywhere in the world. The play was written when the National Theatre Tuzla (Bosnia and Herzegovina) issued an invitation to Neda R. Bric, an actor and director who turns to history in her work, researches and discovers stories and people from the past, so she can look for comparisons and antipodes in the present, and thus confront the intimate stories of individuals from different time periods.

How have the events of the recent history been mirrored in the lives of people in both countries: a horrible war that pitted brother against brother and created the worst maelstrom over the territory of Bosnia and its nationally mixed population, and the problems created by the succession to the Yugoslav property – the problem of the Ljubljanska banka and some other companies, but above all, the "erased" legal affair that targeted people who did not have Slovenian roots and which – in its extensiveness and cruelty – reminds of events of some other dark times, some other war.

The title of the play is written and understood the same in both Slovenian and Bosnian. It evokes the meaning of the name of Tuzla, as "tuz" means "salt" in Turkish, while at the same time, reminds us of the well-known adage cum grano salis – meaning that we should keep a distance to everything, look at things from afar, so we can see what is close. And salt is an ancient, eternal substance without which life on earth would not possible.

Première in Tuzla: 19 November 2017

Première in Kranj: 27 March 2018

Photo gallery