"Judith Seeks" confronts the insufficient good to save the world

Judit is a young woman who faces a kind of existential dilemma of modern times, such as the fact that you have to be a bad person to succeed in this world. Perhaps she is right to some extent. Reality alienates man, murder becomes "acceptable", her fate takes on a biblical meaning as the savior of the world. There are hundreds of stories that roll by at a rapid pace, the man gets lost in them, this seems to be a deliberate formula, but above all the play "Judit Seeks" is for "Anyone who cares", as is this year's theme of "Polip". With this Belgian play the festival has raised the curtain and opened the topic

She awaits the audience sitting on the stage. She seems to be in thought. While the audience sits in the chairs of what is now the Amphitheater of the National Theater of Kosovo in the Palace of Youth and Sports, Judit seems to be in thought. She is not impressed. If you look at her for a few moments, you can read in her portrait that she is not thinking about anything ordinary. Or at least not in her mind. And as soon as the audience takes their seats, it becomes clear what is troubling Judit.

In the theater play "Judit Seeks", the French actress Chloë Onyinye carries the main burden of the character who is the axis of the play. Sometimes the character is also portrayed by her colleagues. It is about a young woman, who has questions about everything that surrounds her: about social behavior, relationships with individuals and nature. It seems as if she has come to the conclusion that you have to be a bad person to succeed in this world. But she will not be like that. She has a psychologist in front of her who consults her about everything. Sometimes it seems as if the psychologist does not care much either. She reads a lot and goes into depth. She has read somewhere that 50 percent of the human body is bacteria, which is nothing but bad. She simply gets lost in the environment where she lives, but slowly comes to her senses. In the play with which the international festival "Polip", organized by the "Multimedia" center, opened, Judit comes across as a biblical character. She is the girl who saves her people.

In the Belgian production in Dutch, for about two hours humanity and aggression are sifted to get by. Beyond the constant characters, the show also has narrators. It enters those shows where hundreds of stories walk around for almost two hours. Something like the shows of Jeton Neziraj, who leads "Multimedia". The narration also suits this year's theme of "Polip": "Who cares! What about the issue of the environment?"

As a biblical figure, Judith saves her people by using courage, faith, and wisdom. She enters the camp of the enemy general Holofernes and kills him, stopping the invasion of her city. The play's Judith also kills Holofernes, but it takes time for her to convince herself that in this world, such methods must also be used to do good. She sacrifices herself psychologically for the good of others. Simply put: she forgets herself. The scenes of the play are carefully crafted, and despite the fact that the text must be read with subtitles by the audience in Pristina, the audience has deciphered the play quite well.

"Tonight's play deals with a biography of a young girl, Judit, who at a young age is faced with major urban and ecological dilemmas, as well as other social problems that provoke a young woman. She is a young woman who, at the beginning of the play, comes more statically in front of a psychologist from whom she seeks advice on nature, then human nature, ecology and urban life. Then also in relation to friends and many other things. She is challenged by her surroundings and seeks to find herself and be more dynamic.

"The play is built through an open dramaturgy of a post-dramatic theater, where the story of a character is narrated in the third person," said director Alban Beqiraj. According to him, interference with the audience in this type of theater is more frequent.

"The play goes through many levels such as metaphysical, psychoanalytic, theoretical and takes on different dimensions. It also goes through biblical psychology. It poses many dilemmas that an individual has at this time," he said.

Written by Femke Van der Steen and directed by Christophe Aussems, starring Sara Vertongen, Mona Mina Leon, Matthias Van de Brul and Chloë Onyinye, “Judit Seeks” brings together many young people through its main character in a story. Aso, who have thousands of questions about how today's societies function. With all the conflicts raging globally, young people's questions keep coming and going.

Actress Sara Vertongen has explained that the show is built on three narratives.

"There's a true story of a young woman who consults a psychologist and somehow tries to save the world. She harms herself trying to do everything right. Then she finds herself like Judith in the Bible, who is a strong woman. She then takes control and becomes strong enough to kill someone. The fossils become plastic and oil and the question that arises is that they are now part of life and how can we give them a voice. The play is quite complicated. There is a sense that it tries to open the imagination. Tonight we had an audience that doesn't understand our language and the play has a lot of text. It wasn't easy to understand," she said.

Meanwhile, Chloë Onyinye said that initially, when she read the text, she saw that it was not something simple.

"You have to read a lot to understand what's going on. It's a big responsibility because that's what the drama intended. It's a complete job to stage this play. It's interesting how the audience takes this text. Sometimes the audience is calmer and sometimes it explodes. But it's interesting to see how people reflect on the play," said Chloë.

As part of "Polip" on Friday, the play "Order of the Day" from the Netherlands was also given. It took place at the "Prison of the Ideal" in the capital, as a play that is closely related to current events, created within a single day.

"At a time when the news comes to us like an overloaded avalanche of information, this play filters the essential and presents it in its own, unique and theatrical way. The lyrics and music are written in the moment – ​​sometimes even during the performance itself – and performed with a script in hand; this is the essence of this theatrical adventure," is the description he gives to the play "Polip".

"Polipi", which this year comes with its 16th edition, closes on Saturday with ZOE from Graz, Austria. According to the organizers' announcement, this musical features a unique combination of science fiction poetry, electronic music and immersive scenography, creating a landscape where human and non-human life forms, technology and nature are inextricably intertwined.

"A non-linear and multi-sensory narrative, woven from body, voice, sound and space, invites us to reconsider what 'life' might mean in a speculative future beyond the Anthropocene. 'ZOE' is a polyphonic narrative about the continuous process of the formation of the Earth - of plants, animals, machines and also humans," is the description given to the performance.

This year's "Polypi" comes formatted like the two previous editions after 13 editions mainly focused on literature when it announced the expansion to theater. It brings together well-known local and international names and through art asks questions and raises dilemmas about the future of the environment. "Judith Seeks" has also asked such questions and, through the biblical narrative, has shown that human aggressiveness is often present among beings who share the same space.