Jovan Cirilov about the performance “Will You Ever Be Happy Again?”, BITEF’s round table “Truth In Theatre”

At the heart of the piece is an interest in the notion of truth, and what we get here is a subjective truth but inspired by the facts of life. Through the relationship of the two performers we can trace the post–Second World War history of Europe, which is at times very witty and at times incredibly painful. But for me this is not the only truth of the piece. More importantly, as in all real art, Will You Ever Be Happy Again? manages to maintain an erotic undercurrent, which was suppressed both in the Nazi and socialist regimes. So, for me that is the truth, and it is the truth of the theatre.

Jovan Cirilov, BITEF Festival, Belgrade

Leonie Blom, INSTED – reaction after “Will You Ever Be Happy Again?”

From the beginning to the end the piece follows an elaborate narrative curve. You start off as a child, and you end up in a football stadium shouting nationalistic songs. This is a scary thought: children are naive, but also highly manipulative. But the performance doesn’t necessarily leave you scared. The games the performers are playing possess a naive quality that is also full of hope. So the answer to the question ‘will you ever be happy again?’ would be ‘yes, you probably will.’ Let’s just hope that people learn from their past mistakes. Even if this hope is as naive as a children’s game.

Leonie Blom, INSTED, Amsterdam

Philip Thorne, Imploding Fictions on “Will You Ever Be Happy Again?”

It seemed there was a very intricate balance between simplicity and complexity. The games, songs and routines had a simple and innocent quality about them, yet tipped into a haunting eloquence about nationality and the roles of good and evil. The game–experiments and the precision with which they were pursued had an almost scientific quality to them, uncontaminated by sentiment or spectacle. At no point, however, did the performance seem cold because of the playfulness underlying every action. It was interesting the way Mitrovic takes very personal and intimate artefacts (letters, photos, at one point a passport) and magnifies them on the backdrop, turning them into something with a much wider significance, turning them from private to public.

In a way the whole performance was based on this kind of extrapolation, exploring large themes through a very personal, specific and simple lens. Many moments managed to have quite a forceful gut impact, especially the incessant football chants at the end of the show. The latter seemed to drive home how blatant nationalism becomes acceptable through these games and how easily we accept ‘labelling devices’ – be they teams, religions or nationlities.

Philip Thorne, Imploding Fictions, London

Robert van Heuven – Nationalism As A Children’s Game

The beauty of the production is that it never slips into sentimentality. The strongest scenes are those in which we, as the audience, feel ill at ease: such as the scene in which Mitrovic suggests that maybe we could love her now that she’s got the Dutch passport, or the scene which ends in the conclusion that Europeans will accept Serbs only after they deliver their war criminals. Will You Ever Be Happy Again? is a fresh and beautifully engaging performance, with performers whom you would want to watch time and again, regardless of whether you’re German, Serb or Dutch.

Robert van Heuven, 8weekly, Amsterdam

Ivan Pravdic about “Will You Ever Be Happy Again?”, BITEF’s round table “Truth In Theatre”

Experiences of body and language invoked in minute detail through a series of cabaret–style numbers of remarkable intelligence and insight. Children’s games and the talk of the adults that made up our disappeared society are returned to the audience with a sense of humour and performance so precise, controlled and astute that it’s harder to forget than our own childhoods.

Ivan Pravdic, KKH (Walking Criticism), Belgrade

Goran Cvetkovic, Radio Belgrade2 – “Will You Ever Be Happy Again?” by Sanja Mitrovic

Employing a wealth of idioms from contemporary theatre – including dance, spoken word, singing and video – this joyful and non–pretentious performance succeeds in making us face disasters we’re still living through. Drawing parallels with Germany after the Second World War is developed to great success. The climax is a scene featuring football chants from both countries, sung simultaneously in two languages, against and over each other.