A co-production by the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb and the Croatian National Theatre in Varaždin, in the framework of the K-HNK project
Wooden Birds is the debut play by Lidija Deduš, a versatile writer and poet known for her refined literary sensibility, for which she was awarded the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb Prize for Best Contemporary Play in 2022. Based on an actual event, the play tackles the murder of a sixteen-year-old girl in a tight-knit 1980s community. The temporal distance allows both the author and the audience to examine and confront the societal blind spots around femicide, then and now.
Premiering under the direction of Ivan Plazibat, Wooden Birds addresses a broad spectrum of social issues, such as alcoholism, patriarchy, and the stifling limitations of small-town life, where girls are offered nothing more than factory work after finishing primary school. Nada, a teenage girl determined to rise above the constraints of her surroundings, stands at the centre of the drama. Around her, the lives of her closest companions and villagers intertwine in a series of developments that echo the structure and suspense of a crime narrative.
Vivid and naturalistic in its portrayal of human relationships and small-town dynamics, the play presents audiences with a compelling collage of life, marked by harshness, tenderness, and yearning for freedom.
The production Wooden Birds by Lidija Deduš, directed by Ivan Plazibat and created as a co-production of the Croatian National Theatre in Varaždin and the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb within the framework of K-HNK project, received the Croatian Theatre Award for Best Production, while Ivan Plazibat was awarded the Croatian Theatre Award for Best Directing for his work on the production. At the 36th Marulić Days, the production received three awards: the Audience Award for Best Performance, the Slobodna Dalmacija Readers’ Award for Best Acting Achievement, presented to Klara Fiolić for the role of Nadica, and the Jury Award of the 36th Marulić Days for Outstanding Artistic Achievement, awarded to Zdravka Ivandija Kirigin for set design.
