Visiting Mr. Green is a stage play by American author Jeff Baron that has been performed for over twenty years around the world and been receiving great reviews, awards and nominations. The play has gone on to have over 500 productions in 49 countries in 24 different languages and had its Off – Broadway premiere in 1997, with Eli Wallach in the title role.
This touching comedy will be staged in Sarajevo, by actors Miki Trifunov and Alban Ukaj and dramaturgist Nejra Babić, on September 11 on the Sarajevo War Theatre SARTR.
The play revolves around the life of a recently widowed 86-year-old man, who nearly gets run over by a car. 35-year-old Ross Gurdiner (Alban Ukaj) enters Green’s world, not because he wants to, but because he has to. The young man was ordered by the court to visit the old man because he was driving the car during the accident.
A clash of cultures makes for a gripping drama as the men force each other to examine their own lives and beliefs. They confront their differences about religion, sexuality, and family.
First non – European KulturePreis Europa award-winning author, Jeff Baron, about the play that made it such an international hit:
„No one ever knows why something is successful, as you can tell from Hollywood, where a lot of money and energy is spent vainly trying to re-create previous hits. But in the case of Visiting Mr. Green, which I have had the privilege to see in Japan, Brazil, France, Croatia, Mexico and many other countries, always in the native language, one of the truly surprising things for me was seeing that the play feels exactly the same wherever it plays. Whatever cultural differences exist between those of us in North America and people in Europe, Asia or South America, our human similarities are much, much stronger. Families are the same everywhere. It’s really about parents and children and parental expectations of children. Everyone knows someone like Mr. Green and everyone knows someone like Ross. Their specific characteristics make the story interesting, but their human-ness and the struggles they’re each going through, make the play personal for almost everyone. Also, I was warned that comedy does not translate, but I discovered that comedy based on character, absolutely does.”
By all means, do visit Mr. Green!
