Elbasan 20/10/2018
A walk in the city centre. A wide street cuts Elbasan in half. The fortress’s ramparts, stretch along a significant part of the main street. A physical border between the old and the new. Past and present intertwined, yet imbalanced, struggling to co-exist. The generation that has known Albania under the communist regime and its fall, meets the generation of the internet and start-up companies.
The old fort standing side by side with LC Waikiki Hotel, a surreal reminder of ‘Hotel’, the classic 90’s board game. A random afternoon visit to the baker’s leads to an unexpected and most interesting encounter with the first foreigner, apart from the festival’s artists, I meet in Elbasan, since my arrival. Nick is a British missionary and has been living in Elbasan for 25 years, along with his family. Sharing thoughts with him, gives me a new perspective for the place.
Evening at Skampa Theatre. We are watching a co-production of Teatri A. Moisiu & “Eja ne Teater”. ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’, a British farce, directed by Driada Dervishi, has managed to attract the warmest audience yet; among the festival’s performances I managed to attend to. I have absolute zero understanding of the text, since the actors speak in Albanian.
Nevertheless, the ‘theatre of situations’ dynamic and the actors’ interpretations are there to fill even the smallest gap and I catch myself laughing in perfect sync with the local audience. It is the moment, when action itself creates a common, a shared space, so clear and humane, that speech and language start playing a secondary role in communication. After the show, I manage to meet Driada for a couple of minutes and ask her some questions. Later on, not having any other option based on our schedules, we meet with Romano Foddai, director of S’arza company from neighbouring Italy. Born and raised in Sardinia, Romano talks with distinct warmth about Elbasan, a city he has already visited 10 times.
He is a man so rich in emotion, who, I feel has migrated in countless places through theatre and imagination, without ever having felt the need to actually live anywhere else, but in his place of origin. During dinner, along with the rest of the group, accompanied by Adonis and his son Geris, we discuss about the developments in Italy, the global political landscape, the shift towards the extreme-right, the League of the North corruption schemes and the probable upcoming rupture between the Italian government and the EU. And as all good neighbours should do, we share points of view on our countries’ current situation and reflect on the overall state of our region. Unfortunately, the joy of meeting has to succumb to the need for rest, as my Italian friends have to prepare for their early morning departure and their journey back home.
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