Gavrilo Princip – Holland Festival

Dutch theatre group De Warme Winkel takes us back to one of the main turning points in modern history: 28 June 1914. Gavrilo Princip and five of his friends have hatched a plot to assassinate Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, during his visit to Sarajevo. But their pistols misfire, their grenades explode too late or not at all and the plan fails miserably. By sheer coincidence, a little later Gavrilo finds himself face to face with Franz Ferdinand. The last thing Ferdinand sees is a weedy little man with no shoulders and a thin moustache.

Applying its idiosyncratic brand of humour, De Warme Winkel serves up a maniacal, orgiastic, theatrical reconstruction ending in carnage and mayhem.

Gavrilo Princip came from a poor farming family who lived in the Grahovo valley in northwestern Bosnia. At the time of the assassination, he had only recently joined the underestimated group

of Serbian nationalists who planned the murder of Franz Ferdinand. At first, the assassination attempt failed spectacularly: the pistols of three of his fellow would-be assassins failed to fire. Two hand grenades were then thrown at Franz Ferdinand’s car, but these exploded under the next car in the convoy. The Archduke insisted on continuing his procession through Sarajevo, but it was decided to change the route on security grounds. Gavrilo Princip, assuming that the assassination attempt had failed, was hungry and, a little way away from the planned route of the procession, went into a baker’s shop. History does not record what he ordered – however, we do know that, upon emerging from the shop, he suddenly found himself face-to-face with Franz Ferdinand. He shot him dead. The banality of this coincidence, coupled with Princip’s inauspicious background and contrasted with the incredible impact of his deed, forms the starting point for this anniversary production. Certain

individuals’ desire to achieve immortality through a single, destructive deed is horrifyingly contemporary and retains the power to shake the very foundations of our society.

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Credits

concept Jeroen De Man, Maria Kraakman, Vincent Rietveld, Mara van Vlijmen, Ward Weemhoff cast Jeroen De Man, Maria Kraakman, Vincent Rietveld, Mara van Vlijmen, Ward Weemhoff understudy Mark Kraan final direction Marien Jongewaard sound composition Remco de Jong, Florentijn Boddendijk lighting design Prem Scholte Albers scenography Juul Dekker, Sarah Nixon video technology Emo Weemhoff costumes keeper HP Hulscher production coordination Carry Hendriks production Sophie van Hoorn, Renske Ebbers (stage) costumes Bernadette Corstens coproduction Holland Festival, Kaaitheater technique Jez Cox, Ivo Pas Research Czeslaw de Wijs surtitle operator Elly Scheele English translation Renske Ebbers

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