drama

split summer festival

drama

In the course of five decades dramatic repertoire of Split Summer Festival passed through many changes and different concepts, quality of which is still being discussed by the critics. On the other side, rather than by concepts the audience is always attracted by some memorable productions, performances that live in their memories throughout years and decades – some as never surpassed and the others as failures. But after all, both the former and the latter are always the cause for new readings and new productions, regardless whether they belong to classical ancient Greek or Roman repertoire (with which the first festivals started), to contemporary dramatic texts, to Croatian, Mediterranean and/or Dalmatian classical heritage, or they are among the projects that are hardly to classify because they comprised the elements of musical, dance and dramatic  theatre as well as those belonging to the world of multimedia.
The quantity of realized dramatic titles during past 50 years is so impressive that it makes the task of enumerating and even classifying them almost impossible. One thing however remains constant. It would be impossible to even think of Split Summer Festival without dramatic ensemble of Croatian National Theatre from Split which on that very festival realized some of its’ ultimate achievements. However, those successes would have never been attained if there had not been a long and constant string of the guest performances by national and international theatres. Those productions have always been the opportunity to compare and to measure domestic achievements with the world and a possibility for a fruitful interaction. After all, isn’t that the primary scope of every festival?

U rasponu od pet desetljeća dramski je repertoar Splitskog ljeta zacijelo prošao brojne mijene i koncepcije o čijoj kvaliteti i danas raspravljaju kritičari. S druge strane, publiku uvijek više privlače pojedinačne predstave, od kojih neke u njihovom pamćenju žive desetljećima - jedne kao nikad nadmašene i kultne, a druge kao teški promašaji ili podbačaji. No, i jedne i druge uvijek su povod novim postavljanjima i iščitavanjima. I to jednako vrijedi radilo se o antičkom repertoaru (s kojim su nekad započele Splitske ljetne priredbe), o svjetskim suvremenim tekstovima, o hrvatskoj, mediteranskoj i/ili dalmatinskoj klasici, ili riječ bila o posve novim projektima za koje teško uopće možemo reći da pripadaju samo žanru drame, jer su sazdana od pretapanja plesnih, glazbenih, dramskih i naravno, sve brojnijih multimedijalnih elemenata.
I kolikogod impresivan broj realiziranih dramskih naslova bilo nemoguće i klasificirati a kamoli nabrajati, jednu je konstantu ipak potrebno istaknuti. Splitsko ljeto bilo bi nezamislivo bez Dramskog ansambla HNK Split, koji je upravo tu dao neke od svojih najviših dometa. Ali, ti dometi vjerojatno nikad ne bi bili polučeni da nije bilo duge niske gostovanja nacionalnih i svjetskih kazališta s kojima su se odmjeravali domašaji i jednih i drugih i plodotvorno nadopunjavali. Uostalom, zar to nije primarna svrha svakog festivala.