CHICKENS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Žarko Jokanović was born on May 7, 1967 in Užice.

As a boy, he played in the movie Republic of Užice, where he is remembered for his famous line: “Mister, is all this bread yours?” He was involved in acting – he played in several plays at the National Theater in Užice.

He studied psychology at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade. For a while he was actively engaged in politics.

He is the author of the novel Circles of Power, the drama Step on me, Chickens, the Game of Truth, Whose is my skin, as well as monographs about the screenwriter Siniša Pavić.

He is the author of the exclusive confession of Jovanka Broz Jovanka Broz – My life, my truth and the confession of Nada Budisavljević My sister Jovanka Broz.

He was the screenwriter of several TV projects (Oral times by Lane Gutović, Bravo show, Stars sing for them, At dinner with…), as well as the most watched television series the Game of Fate (598 episodes) and Buried Secrets (202 episodes).

He was the President of the Board of Directors of Borba, the director of Star magazine and the operational director of the Laguna publishing house.

He wrote columns for several daily and weekly newspapers.

In 2013, he received the “Personality of the Year” award.

He is married to actress Milica Milša. They have a son, Antonio.

 

 

A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR

The drama Chickens is a tragicomic story about the terror of youth and beauty and a kind of aesthetic fascism, which are increasingly being imposed as some of the most significant deviations of the age in which we live. Obsession with beauty and eternal youth takes the form of social pathology, and the victims are usually women who have imposed this perverted imperative and burden on themselves. To be or not to be is no longer a Shakespearean dilemma, but the name of a beauty salon – and it has become a modern mantra with an addition, so now it reads: To be or not to be beautiful and young. Everything else is death – personally, which appears in this text in a farcical way through advertisements in a radio show with an extremely fascist name: Who is not beautiful – should not live. Because all this is followed by the marketing of powerful corporations, which in its sub context has exactly this perverted sentence. That is why today the fear of losing beauty and youth is almost stronger than the fear of death itself.

This text, in an Almodovar style, plays with that obsession, which with the advent of social networks has become an even greater burden not only for mature women, but also for younger girls. While the facade is beautified, the foundations are being demolished, only external and not spiritual beauty is important, old age insists on turning into youth, and facial wrinkles are now bigger enemies than all others combined, while at the same time cosmetic treatments and plastic operations have become the “essence of life” – without which one cannot do. And one type of drug addiction, which takes the form of an epidemic.

In order to understand things more easily, we often have to make a mockery of them and bring them to the point of absurdity, although even that is not enough proof that we will succeed in our intention to raise the interior above the facade. Because every day we witness more and more the truth of the old folk proverb: An empty barrel rings louder.

That is why this play is an invitation to return to the essence, which is what we build in ourselves, not on ourselves. Hilarious laughter will be healing only if after it we ask ourselves: How did spirituality, intelligence and emotions capitulate before botox, fillers, silicones and other plastics, which make wax figures out of women, permanently destroying their natural beauty, which first of all comes from the inside. And one more thing. Why anyone today needs duck beaks instead of mouths is not clear to any normal person.

The text Chickens was written in 2007, but, unfortunately, it is even more relevant today. Think about that.

 

 

BIOGRAPHY OF THE DIRECTOR

Marko Jovičić Dimi is a Serbian theater and film director, actor and producer. He was born on May 4, 1995 in Belgrade.

He showed his love for the theater from an early age, when he was accepted to the Snail theater at the age of three, where he gained experience from the theater director Slobodanka Caca Aleksić and her husband Branislav Milićević Kockica.

As an assistant director, he collaborated with many prominent directors from our region: Slobodanka Caca Aleksić, Slobodan Skerlić, Egon Savin, Vladimir Lazić, Ana Zdravković, Goran Šušljik, Aleksandra Milavić Davis and Jug Radivojević.

He graduated in theater and radio directing at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, in the class of professor Ivana Vujić and assistant Snežana Trišić (2019).

Along with elementary school, he graduated from the “Josif Marinković” music school in Belgrade in 2008 (piano), and in later years founded his bands “Ranch of the Damned” and “Mixer Band”.

He has directed numerous plays: At the bottom (FDU “Mata Milošević” – 2016), I don’t hear the seal, Joseph (BITEF Belgrade – 2015, 2016, KRADU Zagreb – 2016, MOT Skopje – 2016, MESS Sarajevo – 2016), Girls business  (BDP – 2017), Ljubinko and Desanka (National Theater in Belgrade – 2017), Beauty and the Beast (Snail Theater – 2017), Frida in the Toy Factory (BDP – 2017), Migrants want Batajnica – graduation play (National Theater in Belgrade – 2018), Ljubinko and Desanka (Kruševačko pozorište – 2018), Lady and the Tramp (SKC Obrenovac – 2018), Vernisage (Ferzeng Theater – 2018), Days of Danilo Lazović (House of Culture “Pivo Karamatijević”, Priboj – 2018), Lilacs through the ages (House of Culture Stari Kolašin – 2019), Mice and Cats Upside Down (Adult Acting / Puppet Theater “Pinocchio” – 2019), Only Three Nights (Theatre “Slavija” – 2019), Four Pigs (Obrenovačko Theater – 2019), the Jungle Book (Pinocchio Puppet Theater – 2019), Far Away (Kombank Hall – 2020), Who Shakes My Cherry (Akademija 28 – 2020), New Year’s Play for Children (Opera and Theater Madlenijanum – 2020), Horns in a Bag (Street Theater – 2020), Cabaret Steamboat(“Steamboat” – 2021), La Guerrilla (National Theater in Niš – 2022), Black Butterfly – Yu group (Terazije Theatre – 2022), Beauty and the Beast (Theatre Snail – 2023), The Man with 4 legs (Theatre “Odeon” – 2023).

He is the director of several projects: Summer is calling you – the official video of the City of Belgrade for the summer season 2018, Belgrade like other cities – a series of shows 2019/2020, the series Enter – Ulazi, the Film Screenplay Festival in Vrnjačka Banja 2021/2022/2023, the series Game of Fate 2022, the movie Cycle 2022, the series Buried Secrets 2023.

He also starred in several TV series and films: the series Dads – the frontman of the band, the series Wheel of Fortune – the hacker Mole, the Game of Fate – Jamezdin, the film Boy and Girls – a policeman, as well as in numerous plays of the “Snail” theater from 2000 to 2020. and Teatra Ulica in the plays There somewhere in the center of the world and How are you?

In the series Zakopane tajne, he won the audience with the character of Čedomir Čavić Čivava.

He has his own production company Double Taurus d.o.o., which for the third year in a row has successfully organized one of the oldest events in Europe – the Film Screenplay Festival in Vrnjačka Banja.

Double Taurus d.o.o. is currently working on the project of the series Buried Secrets, whose screenwriter is the author of the text of the play Chickens, Žarko Jokanović.

 

 

A WORD FROM THE DIRECTOR

I am speechless.