Patrick Marber
Closer
Director: Dino Mustafić
Play on modern partnerships
Running time 1 hour 45 minutes, no interval
Patrick Marber (1964) is one of the main modern British playwrights. Plays Dealer’s Choice (1995) and Closer (1997), which he directed himself and were premiered at the National Theatre in London made him a household name. Closer remains one of the most successful plays on the topic of relationships because it tells tragicomical stories of four highly complex characters in a witty manner. The play has brought Marber several prestigious awards at home and abroad. Marber is not interested in
who is good and who is evil and never judges his characters. "Their behaviour is not my concern. The audience will see them as they wish and they may not even agree with each other but I hope they can see the play’s authenticity … and laugh at some jokes at the same time.” Marber is a fan of a clear-cut dramatic structure, complex characters and well-written plays as he says that "if you are not quick and interesting enough, the audience will leave”. This sarcastic comedy, which deals with
modern relationships without any hesitations, hides painful and sad truths about close relationships under the surface. The tragicomedy reveals relationships between four protagonists: Alice – the stripper, Dan – the writer, Larry – the doctor and Anna – the photographer. Love is the central theme, but the story also talks about "other things – sexual jealousy, male selfishness, lies which we tell to ourselves and the people we are most intimate with and about the ways in which we take
advantage of other people. But in the end, the play is just a simple, beautiful love story. And as with most love stories, bad things happen …”
In her dramatic analysis Kdo je komu blizu ali drama srečevanj ("Who Is Close to Whom or a Play of Encounters”) dramaturge Željka Udovičić writes: "Closer is a play in which actors want to act and the public wants to watch. It has been compared to Williams’ Streetcar Named Desire and the comparison is justified; it is interesting that it was this play that was included in the Maribor Drama theatre programme, which proves that the repertoire must have been very carefully thought out. Williams
was the only playwright who analysed human relationships of his time. He did this in the form of a melodrama, which communicates with the audience employing a universal theme. On the other hand, Marber observed these relationships from the perspective of the modern man and the time in which we live.”
Dino Mustafić, who directed Closer, is the artistic director of the Sarajevo International Theatre Festival MESS and a theatre and film director. This will be the first time that he has directed a play for the Maribor audience. He has directed several documentaries, worked on musical projects and theatre productions. His first film Remake was chosen among the five best films of the International Film Festival Rotterdam. "Film is my hobby, theatre is my soul,” says Mustafić. His most famous theatre plays include Sartre’s Dirty Hands, Ionesco’s Rhinoceros, Molière’s Tartuffe, Koltès’s Roberto Zucco, Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Schwab’s Die Präsidentinnen, Bojčev’s Colonel Bird, The Fourth Sister by Glowatski and Helver’s Night by a Polish playwright Villqist, which is the most awarded play in the history of Bosnian theatre. Theatre performances directed by Mustafić are often hosted by theatres in former Yugoslavia and at festivals in Germany, Italy, Egypt, Columbia, Spain and France.
