Mekoća

Production company / Theatre: Sarajevo War Theater SARTR

Original title of the performance: Mekoća

Title of the performance in English: Softness

Country of origin: Bosnia and Herzegovina

Duration (minutes): 77

Playwright / Author: Collective text by the ensemble, the dramaturg, and the director

Director: Selma Spahić

Full cast list: Alban Ukaj, Boris Ler, Kemal Rizvanović, Josip Stapić

Short synopsis: On a stage filled with potentially dangerous objects are, among other things, an axe, a table with four chairs, two screwdrivers, two jerry cans, a hammer, a pocket knife, an imaginary rock, a rope, a microphone and a saxophone, a pickaxe, a plastic bag, a guitar, an extension cord, one rabbit, and four performers. Four sons—just like any other four sons—from whom good, decent people expect so much.

Starting from the question of how to act in a world shaped by war and aggression, the devised theatre project Softness seeks to discover new, unfamiliar spaces for thinking together about the moment we inhabit today. Exploring a simplified world of hierarchy governed by hegemonic masculinity, where violence functions as the primary organising principle of society—a world in which survival, domination, control, victory, emotional suppression, and six other things are considered essential—we have attempted to open spaces through which tenderness and vulnerability can emerge.
Through a constant interplay of genres and a dynamic oscillation between strict structure and complete chaos, the performance examines the deeply ingrained pressures of masculinity while simultaneously questioning the theatrical conventions audiences have grown accustomed to. Is it possible to imagine a world in which caring for others becomes the fundamental principle of action? Does a world of radical softness exist—and what might it look like?