Qendra Multimedia: Negotiating Peace
20–21 March / Store scene / 19.00, 17.00

“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.

The show is directed by Blerta Neziraj, whose productions for Qendra Multimedia have toured internationally to places including Lausanne, Milan, Vienna, Firenze, Hamburg, Lyon, Sarajevo, Bern, Paris and New York. As an alumna of the Lincoln Center Theatre Directors Lab, she has been directing shows in Kosovo and internationally. She has received various prizes and awards, locally and internationally, including the “Best show” at the 56th Kontrapunkt International Festival (Poland, 2022) and “The Best show” at FIAT (Montenegro, 2023). The Guardian described her as “one of the country’s leading directors.”, while The Stage described her shows as “uncompromising…  necessary…  bold and powerful”.