LIDIJA MARELIC | Villa Sofia

Villa Sofia was performed in late 2012. Whilst this production had no future life, in 2014 Lidija wrote its companion piece Welcome to Sarajevo set in the Balkan Wars of the 1990s which performed extensively in Johannesburg and travelled to both the National arts Festival as well as to Prague.

Presented in partnership with Distell, The Baxter Theatre and GIPCA
Written and Directed by Lidija Marelič
Created in collaboration with the cast
Performed by Susan Danford, Adrian Galley and Terry Norton
Design by Willem Breyl
Lighting Design by Pule Setlhako
Mentored by Jaqueline Dommisse
Poster Design by Warren Turner
Photos by Dex Goodman

Set in a period between the two World Wars and reflecting on the violent Balkan Wars of 1912 - 1914, Villa Sofia interrogates how two people from different cultures and religions can find each other when those very differences are separated by details they themselves struggle to define.

Villa Sofia follows the story of writer, Toni, who is crafting a novel about Sofia, a woman in search of love. Existing only in his mind and on the page, we see Sofia as she helps Toni tell her story and helps him realise his love for his housekeeper, Rafaela, who he grew up with. Rafaela, mute since childhood, does not see Sofia, but steals the novel every night and writes her own chapters, trying to have some influence on the man she has loved in silence for forty years. Toni has always been unable to show Rafaela his love until he started to write a novel. A novel about a woman called Sofia who he creates in order to finally give a voice to his Rafaela.