Negotiating Peace

From the festival programme:

"The lesson it draws, and the genre it chooses to present its findings, is unexpected: the Kosovan playwright Jeton Neziraj’s Negotiating Peace shows the diplomacy of peace as a farce, albeit a necessary one. Dramatising roundtable talks between the fictional warring countries of Banovia and Unmikistan, the play is a frenzied comedy in which vain generals can only be lured to the negotiating table by promises of Hollywood films celebrating their actions. Opposing parties get drunk while negotiating demilitarised zones, mix up drafts of ceasefire agreements and sign on the wrong dotted line. Maps of disputed territories are partitioned with paper scissors until holy lands turn into showers of confetti.”  – Philip Oltermann, The Guardian  

Qendra Multimedia have brought together a pan European ensemble to create Negotiating Peace. This new production has been created with artists and theatre groups from Ukraine, Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Italy, Czechia, Albania, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland and Estonia.

Inspired by Richard Holbrooke’s To End a War and Ismail Kadare’s The General of the Dead Army, Negotiating Peace projects and uncovers dynamics accompanying the process of a peace agreement: Who can negotiate peace? Do political leaders have the legitimacy to do so? Do ordinary people really reconcile after the signing of an “act of peace” on their behalf? Can there be collective forgiveness, or is forgiveness an individual act?

The show focuses on ‘peace negotiations’ including Dayton, agreements in Northern Ireland and those in the Middle East as well as the not-so-fruitful discussions between Kosovo and Serbia. Considering these important political momentums from different wars and conflicts across the world, the show attempts to imagine what the end of the war of Russia against Ukraine will potentially look like."

SOURCE:

Black Box teater’s archive, 2025. 

Sound: Tempo Reale. Art director: Aurela Kadriu. Development, Fundraising Support: Sven Skoric. Tour manager: Dejan Jovanović. International Outreach: Maud Dinand. PR & Communication: Mobius Industries. Sound: Bujar Bekteshi. Technical coordinator: Lulzim Rexha. Production assistant: Flaka Rrustemi. With contribution from: Jette F. Christensen.