Sisters in Arms
Fortune Theatre
Friday, October 10
At the centre of the story are two real, remarkable women. Sofia Jovanovic, the great-grandmother of Hleb Teatar's Sanja Krsmanovic Tasic, fought alongside men in the Serbian forces and during the course of the war received 11 medals in recognition of her courage. Meanwhile Jessie Scott, a Canterbury farm girl and Edinburgh-trained doctor, worked as a medical officer in the Serbian army, and she, too, was honoured for bravery.
A thread of horror unifies the production: horror at the essential pointlessness of the war, at conditions on the battlefield and in field hospitals, and at the needless suffering and death of so many people.
The narrative is not clearly focused and the characters themselves are not deeply inhabited. This is, rather, inspired storytelling or, as the programme says, an ''essay in movement'', rather than conventional drama.
The five actors (Belgrade's Jugoslav Hadzic, Sanja Krsmanovic Tasic and Anastasia Tasic, and Dunedin's Jessica Latton and Rhys Latton), convey their message through story, song and dance, Maori and Serbian elements combining almost seamlessly and building up to a harsh final song that observes that, after we are dead, we all taste the same to the flies - a comment on the pitilessness of war but also an assertion of our common humanity.
The production is especially notable for its well-researched historical content and its strong visual appeal, which is enhanced by well-designed lighting.
Sisters in Arms premiered in Belgrade last month and now, fittingly, it makes its appearance in Dunedin.
- Reviewed by Barbara Frame
