SAY IT STRONG

This week, one student has sent me a couple of questions. She is writing an article about me for Slovenian Theatre Portal SiGledal. I am appearing there as a playwright. The questions were about my plays. About my ideas, what I want to tell. Okay, the best way to find this out is to read what I have produced so far, but this is actually not the case here. Some time ago, another person asked me about overall style of my writing. Well, again I have noticed... how hard it is actually to talk about my own work. And I have started to think about my position as a writer.

I believe theatre can be strong media. Direct and merciless. Honest. I have been dealing a lot with critical and sharp authors. Artist, being well aware that, as Hamlet said, something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Alright, not particularly in that country. In general, I would say. I admire Bertold Brecht, and I have also been dealing a lot with young British punky-playwrights; so called In-Year-Face Theatre. However, when I have consider my own position... Yes, I should bear some kind of responsibility as a writer. More responsibility, perhaps. Is there any kind of power my words can have? Well...

I write very intimate stories. Micro-worlds of individuals, far away from all battlefields this world knows about. And I guess this is the most honest writing I can produce at the moment. I observe the society, human relations around me. I observe communication, how words and language are loosing their meaning. My own experience included. Thus, I write about micro-worlds. Intimate battlefields of different desires. Intimate conflicts. Intimate terrorism. Two people. He has disappeared four years ago. Finally, she finds him in the midst of Icelandic dessert. What happens when they meet again? This is, briefly, the plot of my latest play.

There is a thought about my writing I have come upon. Wherever we are, we cannot escape the general state of the world. We pretend that everything is fine, we go shopping, we go to the movies. We fall in love, we have sex, we separate and so on. However... I think the state of the present world affects our relations. Our overall communication. Being aware of it or not. It does affect us. We do not see many of the battlefields and other shit; yet we can feel it. More than we would like to. More than we even know. Thus, the micro-worlds I write about are also a reflection of this bigger world that surrounds them.

Art in general can be strong media. Visual arts, movies, music. Any kind of art can produce very strong statements. I have seen many art works of all kinds I could write about. Yet... can art actually change anything? Brief thought, disgust, a sting in one's hart, perhaps a quarrel; and it goes by. The world, the society, people's behaving towards the Other. Can it be changed? Is there really any influence art can provide? Here, I feel unsure... but I will keep on writing.