Kuwait Times

Published Date: October 15, 2008

Stray dogs play a star role in a groundbreaking Croatian show that has won rave reviews for raising awareness about abandoned canines and homeless people. Director Borut Separovic's "Timbuktu," which premiered in Zagreb at the weekend, is a moving play about social outcasts based on the 1999 novel by US author Paul Auster, who backed the ambitious production. Separovic took the unusual step of casting a dozen strays from a Zagreb animal shelter, with the main role of "Kosta" (Mr Bones) played by Cap
, an eight-year-old champion border collie.

The play consists mainly of a 45-minute monologue by Mr Bones, with narration provided by actor Sven Medvesek, from his chair in the audience. On the stage, the gifted pooch runs, lies down or barks -- making movements to accompany his "thoughts" about relationships, loss and loneliness in a modern consumerist society. Mr Bones receives quiet orders from instructor Alen Marekovic in the front row as he recounts the story of his life with his deceased master Willy. "It's a story that emphasizes the i
ncredible love between a dog and his master, a homeless person," Separovic told AFP.

The voice is metaphorically transferred to all the socially rejected people living in invisible and silent existence," said the director who lives and works between Croatia and the Netherlands. "Timbuktu offers a therapeutic insight into how not to interpret democracy solely through rights, but also through responsibly and solidarity towards others." At one point, the 12 stray dogs come on stage, a net falls between them and the audience and the play switches to the style of a documentary. Narra
tor, Medvesek, tells the audience: "These dogs have a story which resembles that of Kosta's. We call on you to provide them a home. You can contact me after the show.

For me it was extremely important that real, abandoned dogs appear in the play and be given a chance to be adopted," said Separovic. "Then fiction enters real life. The play does not stay within a theatre framework only, as it continues after the performance," said the 40-year-old, who runs the Montazstroj performance group. The pack of strays is led by Bel, an amiable brownish half-breed whose fate resembles that of many of the 150 dogs in the Zagreb shelter.

The 18-month-old arrived in the shelter last November last year after being found patiently sitting on a highway. "As soon as Borut contacted me, I knew I would do everything to help make this play a success," Tatjana Zajec, a veterinarian who runs the shelter, told AFP. Critics have heaped praise on Timbuktu. The weekly Globus described it as a "unique play which radically breaks through theatre boundaries." "Every child who watched it will forever remember those who have been abandoned and forgott
en," a theatre critic for Vecernji List, the country's largest-circulation newspaper, said.

Borut Separovic evokes very powerful and daring scenes." The show left many in the audience moved. "I enjoyed it very much since the play is original and in our society there is a tendency to neglect all of those who have been abandoned-animals or humans," said one of them, Nenad Kovac. "The most touching moment was the entry of stray dogs and homeless. Their simple presence... brought tears to the eyes of many." Separovic stressed the play also aimed at focussing attention on the fate of homel
ess people, 12 of whom play a role from the audience. While Timbuktu's premiere was held on October 4, World Animal Day, one of the performances is scheduled for October 17, the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. -AFP