Hit novel The Years written by the Nobel prize-winner Annie Ernaux on the stage of the Croatian National Theatre in ZagrebDrama — 06. June 2025.
The opening night of The Years, the novel of the French writer and Nobel prize-winner Annie Ernaux is scheduled for June 6, 2025. It is a powerful and moving chronicle of a single life, but also of the entire society in which personal memories are intertwined with the collective experience. Jovana Tomić is the stage director and together with Mirna Rustemović adapted The Years. She follows the spirit of this exceptional autobiographical novel through scenes that connect the past and the present, the personal and the social, body and emotions.
Honesty and bluntness without reservation in questioning the personal in relation to the socio- political is the main determinant of the narrative, thus putting into light the vulnerability of the leading heroine which is also her greatest strength. The Years are focused on the female experience, pushing into the forefront the themes of maturing, sexuality, love, family, friendships and political consciousness, reveals the stage director Jovana Tomić.
The cast for this production is based on the leading female actresses of the Drama of the CNT in Zagreb – Ksenija Marinković, Jadranka Đokić, Daria Lorenci Flatz, Iva Mihalić and guest actress Lana Meniga, and their interpretations enliven a series of experiences, emotions and memories that are the foundation of Annie Ernaux's novel.
The relation of memory and its transaction has always intrigued me, and Annie Ernaux's novels are a chest of transferred collective and personal memories. The Years is a fascinating example of autobiographic prose that spans over 60 years which succeeded to show a personal metamorphosis of a woman, but also the metamorphosis of an entire society, in seemingly scattered memory flashes, said dramaturge Rustemović, pointing out that Ernaux through a personal female experience challenges, rejects, adopts and conquers changes, models and bias with which she confronts us today.
An honest and witty work by Annie Ernaux develops from the personal into universal, turning an intimate story into a mutual experience of the spectators. The Croatian audience will be able to see this powerful theatrical adaptation on June 7, 10, 11, 13 and 24, 2025 at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb.
