Akutagawa: THE FOOL'S LIFE

At the beginning of the 20th century Ryûnosuke Akutagawa was considered one of the biggest and most learned Japanese writers. Nevertheless, the author of short stories In a Grove and Rashômon, adapted for film by the renowned master Akira Kurosawa, remained almost unknown to large public. His brilliant legacy counts hundreds of short stories, essays and critiques. His short stories, also called "the glazed miniatures" were mostly inspired by Japanese tradition, as well as by Chinese and European classics.
A Fool's Life (1927) is an autobiographical collection of reminiscences, observations and ideas of a man who is saying goodbye to his life. It is composed of fifty one parts – from personal anecdotes to unfinished sketches and observations. Witten in the third person, A Fool's Life offers a bodiless perspective of a personal life. Thoughts of death appear constantly in numerous variations. The author faces his inner struggle, powerless to escape the inevitable.
From the programme of the performance

Courage and beauty together
A Fool's Life represents a healing distance from everyday difficult topics which so often, both in Croatia an abroad, make that theater becomes a dark and gloomy place. Doiashvili's imaginative machine based on the play of lights, scene design and costumes, brings fantasy back to contemporary theater, which is good both for the theater and the theatergoers. Has this fairytale any impact on reality? The director Doiashvili says: "I would love this performance to make people hope that tomorrow will be better than today. We have to believe in miracles in order to make that happen." If we take a look at the heart of these thoughts, we'll understand that they want to combine courage with beauty. The writer Akutagawa scarified his life for that beauty.
Bojan Munjin, Novosti

We have to believe in miracles
At the times in which we live, when it seems that only a miracle can save us, we got a performance that is not socially engaged, but offers comfort through beauty and stimulates fine mechanism that lead us to recognize the Good...
This production is characterized by high esthetic quality, while excellent actors gave maximum on stage, away from their usual acting routine... Without a single pathetic note, this poetic drama is staged on a black, minimalistic stage accentuated with white objects ( a writing machine, books, rain/snow/cherry petals falling down ...) In the front we see reality, while two steps away, in the background, scenes from imagination take place... There wouldn't be any magic had the actors form Rijeka not played their parts with greatest joy.
Tatjana Sandalj, Kulisa.eu