Four sisters return to Zagreb from Vienna, Glasgow, Berlin and London to be with their
mother before her surgery, at her request. Three of them somehow manage to arrive on
time, while the fourth remains stranded at an airport, trying to stay connected and be
with them, if only digitally.
Saša, Sabina, Sofia and Suzana lead markedly different lives, each on the verge of
a major decision, striving for change, resisting the circumstances they inhabit, and each
in her own way at odds with herself and the life she has found herself living. Between
them lie ideological tensions and seemingly irreconcilable differences, but also a strong
bond of sisterly love and understanding.
In her play The Scattered, Tena Štivičić charts a world in the aftermath of the
COVID pandemic as a process of breakdown, populated by individuals who, despite a
crisis of identity, continue to search for meaning or a place to call home. Her protagonists
are once again in transit, suspended between departure and return, inhabiting a liminal
space marked by anger, anxiety and constant unease. They no longer have a place to go
to, nor anywhere to return to. The home they left behind is changing as death claims
their parents and neighbours. The lives they have built are collapsing. The cities they
once moved to have failed to fulfil their promises. Štivičić’s four sisters, much like their
Chekhovian predecessors, dream of new beginnings.
The Scattered is not only a psychological study of family dynamics in moments of
uncertainty, but also a story about a world in crisis. In a world where human bonds are
disintegrating and communities collapsing, communication itself begins to fail. The sisters
are separated not only by visible geographical borders; each is, within her own reality,
alienated by the ideological divisions shaping everyday life. Their meeting in the physical
world, in a dilapidated apartment cluttered with relics, becomes an opportunity to encounter
one another anew and to recognise each other within the profound loneliness of the
contemporary world. Their solitude, and even their despair, create a space for compromise,
dialogue and painful truths — a fragile moment in which hope briefly becomes possible.
The Scattered premiered at the Berliner Ensemble in Berlin, directed by Laura
Linnenbaum, and earned its author the Helene Weigel Award. The Croatian premiere
will be directed by the award-winning Slovenian director Nina Rajić Kranjac.
