From December 3-14, 2025, FROM THE OTHER SIDE transforms La MaMa into a home for an incredible group of Balkan artists. On Wednesday, December 3, 2025 at 1PM, they present the Opening Roundtable Discussion: ART and/or/is POLITICS. Tickets are free and the discussion will be both in-person and livestreamed. For more information and to reserve your place, visit https://ci.ovationtix.com/42/production/1251725?performanceId=11723994.
 
A panel discussion on the role of arts and culture in the socio-political milieu of the Balkans. The aim of the discussion is to question the position of labor in the arts, and art itself as a space of (un)freedom within oppressive social systems. What are the dangers of the instrumentalization of art for political purposes? What is the role of didacticism in theatre and its potential for enlightenment in contemporary society? This opening roundtable will serve as an introduction to FROM THE OTHER SIDE and the important social and political topics that this festival aims to illuminate.
 
Participants: Mirjana Karanović, Tanya Domi, Andrej
Nosov, Natasha Tripney and Beka Vučo
Moderator Dimitrije Kokanov
 
Mirjana Karanović is the lead in They Are All Gone and one of the most prominent actresses in the Balkans as well as an activist.
 
Andrej Nosov is the Director of the play They Are All Gone and a human rights activist. He is also the Producer and Artistic Director of Heartefact Theatre.
 
Tanya Domi is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and is an affiliate faculty member of the Harriman Institute at Columbia University, where she has taught in the Balkan Studies program since 2008. She is also a Senior Non-Resident Fellow at the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy Western Balkans Centre, based in Washington, D.C.
 
Natasha Tripney is a writer, editor, and critic based in London and Belgrade. She is the international editor for The Stage, the newspaper of the UK theatre industry, and editor-in-chief of SEEstage.org, an English language platform for theatre criticism in southeast Europe. She also writes the weekly European theatre newsletter, Cafe Europa. Previously, between 2015-2022, she was the lead critic and reviews editor for The Stage. She continues to lead The Stage’s Edinburgh fringe review team. In 2011, she co-founded Exeunt, an online portal for independent and experimental theatre criticism, which she edited until 2016. She is a regular contributor to The Guardian and to BBC Culture, and has written for the Evening Standard, New York Times, Index on Censorship, Tortoise,and Kosovo 2.0.
 
Beka Vučo is a producer, cultural manager, and Founder/President of My Balkans. Her career spans from Producing Director of Theatre Atelje 212 and BITEF to Balkan Regional Director at Open Society Foundations, New York. Beka’s work focuses on human rights, democracy, equality, arts, and culture. She is Board President of No Borders Orchestra and a member of Konektor Steering Committee, Philanthropy East Forum.
 
Moderator Dimitrije Kokanov is a writer, dramaturg, and screenwriter. He is the resident dramaturg at Theatre Atelje 212 in Belgrade. His plays have been translated into several languages and performed both in Serbia and internationally. He is the recipient of all major, Serbian national awards for playwriting. As a dramaturg, he has collaborated on over 70 projects across various performing arts practices (mostly theatre and contemporary dance), both in Serbia and abroad. He also works as a director of radio plays.
 
FROM THE OTHER SIDE is groundbreaking on many levels. This is the first time that such a broad selection of cultural activities from the Balkans will be presented in the United States. Reimagining Theater From The Balkans invites audiences to open themselves to new themes, poetics, and approaches to theatre arts, and to reconsider its political context through a different lens. The ten-day run includes two productions that offer distinct perspectives on themes of collective and individual memory, tradition and the past; three staged readings that present a selection of texts that showcase the formal and poetic qualities of contemporary drama recognized across the broader European context; archival recordings that feature important 21st-century productions by some of the region’s most prominent directors, offering a rare glimpse into significant theatrical achievements; and a round table discussion serving as a platform for dialogue on the intersections of art and politics as it is introduced in the chosen artworks.
 
“’The Balkans’ is a political and cultural construct, a former warzone that, following the traumas of the late 20th century, entered the 21st century amid ongoing tensions. The region continues its attempt to shift into a phase of development, positioned, as always, at the crossroads of cultures – East and West, the South and the North,” said producer Beka Vučo. “It consistently longs to articulate its own identity, an identity that is inherently unstable and shaped by a multitude of factors: ethnic, religious, gender, sexual, and beyond.”
 
LIVE PERFORMANCES
 
They Are All Gone
By Doruntina Basha
Directed by Andrej Nosov
Translated by Alexandra Channer
Starring: Mirjana Karanović, Svetozar Cvetković, Alban Ukaj, with voices of Maja Salkić, Davor Sabo, Kemal Rizvanović, Matea Mavrak, Hana Zrno, Sanin Milavić, Faruk Hajdarević, Alen Konjicija, Natalia Dmitrieva, Dino Hamidović
Presented by Heartefakt; Serbia, Belgrade
December 4 & 5 at 8:00 pm, 6 at 4:00 & 8:00 pm, 7 at 4:00 pm
They Are All Gone, the opening production in the inaugural edition of From the Other Side, is a moving piece about family, loss and the slipperiness of memory from Doruntina Basha, one of Kosovo’s most acclaimed playwrights, and director Andrej Nosov, artistic director of Serbian cultural NGO Heartefact. The production, which has played sold-out performances in Belgrade and Sarajevo, stars Mirjana Karanović, Svetozar Cvetković and Alban Ukaj, three of the leading stars of stage and screen in the region. It uses headphones to create an enhanced sense of intimacy with the audience.
 
Things That Burn Easily
Written and Directed by Vedrana Klepica
Translated by Marija Andrijašević
Starring: Hrvojka Begović, Lea Jevtić, Vladimir Aleksić
Ganz Culture For Change, Zagreb, Croatia
December 11, 12, & 13. at 8:00 pm and 14 at 4:00 pm
Things That Burn Easily narrates a story about a family living on a modest piece of land affected by a catastrophe. Some of them believe that they have been wronged by irreparable injustice and that a system that will compensate for some of the consequences of it should exist. Others are skeptical and have modeled for themselves a picture of the world in which every other individual is a potential threat. The only reliable certainty comes from social and societal isolation and autonomous construction of their own systems of survival and belief. When a big new natural disaster appears on the horizon, the tragedy of it will escalate into an unbearable misunderstanding of these two principles.
 
STAGED READINGS
The Last Girls on Earth
Written and translated from Serbian by Maja Pelević
Directed by Alice Reagan
December 6 at 1:00 pm
Today, more than ever, our system absorbs every facet of human existence and profits from them. The Last Girls on Earth explores situations wherein even biological and emotional aspects like motherhood are marketable goods. A woman’s worth is often linked to her status as a mother, making those without children feel devalued and pressured to fulfill that role. This environment fosters the transformation of a fundamental human desire into a commodity, with children becoming a resource to own. The story begins where the womb becomes a factory and the child a luxury product. The Last Girls on Earth received an award for the best contemporary play at the biggest national theater festival in Serbia.
 
All Adventurous Women Do
Written by Tanja Sljivar
Directed by Tea Alagić
Translated by Aida Spahić
December 12 at 1:00 pm
All Adventurous Women Do explores the social phenomenon of seven thirteen-year-old girls who fell pregnant on a school trip. Here Šljivar gives voice to young female subjects whose speech in public space is prevented, and whose very experiences are often interpreted and processed with certain ideological points of view and from the perspective of the adult world, which does not see girls as equal social subjects. All Adventurous Women Do premiered at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin and has been publicly read and performed in various countries, including Serbia, Germany, USA, Croatia, Austria and Italy. It has been translated into seven languages thus far.
 
All of a Sudden, A River
Written by Dimitrije Kokanov
Directed by Davin Brain
Translated by Matt Robinson
December 14 at 12:30 pm
Composed of three parts, All of a Sudden, a River, with its dystopian narrative, focuses on themes of colonialism, international warfare, social oppression, authoritarian regimes, the disenfranchisement of the Other, and issues of the pervasive violence within patriarchal and heteronormative societies. The play is an authentic response to Orwell’s 1984. Conceived as a space for silenced voices, this play allows its characters to speak in a way that the world can finally hear — revealing their deepest fears. In its conclusion, the author predicts a radical regression of civilization, reducing society to a distorted version of so-called “traditional” values. All of a Sudden, a River premiered in Slovenia in 2022, and was later published as part of a collection of plays by the same author.
 
“The live performances to be shown highlight a vibrant and challenging segment of Balkan culture. However, they only represent a fraction of the broader creative landscape. FROM THE OTHER SIDE video presentations showcase significant artistic and thematic achievements that are not easily available through travel. This selection of three productions underlines the notable directors and theatres from the region,” said Vučo.