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By Koloreto Cukali
Turning Thomas Vinterberg's film "Festen" (1998) into a play is a challenge, and to play this drama in Albania is more than a challenge. Not only that director Bes Bitraku has his directorial debut; not only that whatever you try to do will put you in front of the film of one of the best Danish cinema authors; but also that Albania seems dull in the face of dramas and the public seems to want only humor, and possibly as weightless as possible.
The Birthday Anniversary dispels all these fears, and the show is (in my humble opinion) one of the best of the year put in Tirana, and one of the best I have seen in a very, very long time.
On the stage of the hotel room, where the director has reached his maximum, our eyes are nourished by an intertwined dance of the dramas of the 3 remaining children of the family. After that, everything that will come becomes more understandable.
Set as in an Albanian party, where the public is also a participant in the celebration, in a dinner like the "last", Anniversary ... there are clearly drawn characters: Helge, the omnipotent and abusive father; a suicidal girl whose shadow is in the air; the mother hiding behind a mask, a life lived under the shadow of the father; traumatized children who do not want to disprove the myth; grandfather - detached from reality; father's friends who would prefer to know nothing and things to go through with a slap in the face; and among them, the abused Christian (Albanian), who has an invisible burden on his shoulders.
I personally went to see to bring a Danish drama in Albanian, and I went out to see the drama of the whole of Albania. Not only are we full of domestic drama full of violence and rape, but because the Klingenfeldt-Hansen family is exactly the Albania we live in today: A society that refuses to analyze the past and bows down to an abusive patriarch - the father of the family dressed in white and celebrating its 60th anniversary.
In the performance of Bes Bitraku, the director and the actor manage to overcome the technical shortcomings of A-Turbina, bringing a drama decomposed in detail; a team of the best actors and directed where needed; Tristan Halilaj (in the role of Kristian) in a performance that collects a lump in the throat throughout the show; and the question that bothers you, "yes mom, did you know"?
A birthday is a "holiday" where we can all be or be present. In a country like Albania, we all have or will have a meeting with people who have raped and destroyed people's lives but are still dressed in white and respected.
And yes, mom, she knew.
* This show comes with the support of UNICEF Albania and Funding from the Government of the United Kingdom - British Embassy Tirana, in the framework of the campaign "Transformation of the National Response to Trafficking in Human Beings in and from Albania".