Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt
ENIGMA VARIATIONS
Coproduction of the CNT in Zagreb and the CNT Ivan noble Zajc Rijeka
Enigma variations is an unusual love story and sort of a thriller of the contemporary French writer, philosopher, dramatist and movie director Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt written in 1996. In Enigma variations two characters, one a successful writer and one a journalist lead us through a suspense story, in numerous variations that like some psychological crime novel reveal their love relationship toward a mysterious woman. The woman who is emotionally very significant to both of them remains hidden, and the fast and unexpected turn of events ends by a sudden outcome that shows how actually nothing is as it seemed to be. The title of this intriguing drama refers to a work of the British composer Edward Elgar, Variations on an Original Theme, a work that according to the author himself hides one melody that we do not understand, one that is elusive, simultaneously present and absent. The conflict between the two men is at the same time a confrontation of two opposite principles, views of reality, life, creativity and everyday life, love and lust, all intertwined with the author's autobiographical concerns about love, death, illness and solitude…One of the greatest artists of Croatian drama Neva Rošić will direct this text. She staged the same text last season with great success for the Italian Drama of the CNT Ivan noble Zajc Rijeka.
