Two chairs, three conversations, and one absence. From this simple, stripped-down
stage setting emerges a drama about the limits of language, missed opportunities, guilt
and forgiveness.
Structured as the reconstruction of an intimate, therapeutic and impossible dialogue,
the play follows three intertwined conversations: one between a daughter and her
father that actually took place; one between the daughter and her psychotherapist after
his death; and one between the daughter and her father that never happened, though it
is precisely this unspoken exchange that shapes the very need to speak. The play focuses
on Ena — daughter, author, and witness to her own trauma. Through language, she seeks
to understand and come to terms with her father’s decision to end his life.
Pičman does not view suicide as an isolated act or merely an expression of personal
will, but as a radical rupture in society, language and memory. By portraying the
guilt, shame and burden that remain with the living after suicide, the text poses an
unbearable question: would anything have been different had we known how to speak
when it mattered? At the same time, it raises questions on the limits of intimacy and on
how close we can truly come to another person, how far we can go in expressing love and
attachment. Is it not, perhaps, the unspoken that at times becomes the final and most
truthful form of love?
In its enclosed minimalist form, reduced to two chairs and two performers, in
claustrophobic proximity to the audience, the play establishes an intimate relationship
between performers and spectators. This closeness is not only spatial but also ethical:
the audience is not shielded from the confrontation, but rather becomes a witness and
participant. The stage becomes a space of intense focus, while the duration of one hour
— the average length of a therapeutic session — becomes a measure of genuine presence
before the other.
Dora Šustić’s play Pičman was awarded the Marin Držić Prize (First Prize) in 2024,
and its world premiere will be directed by the author herself.
