ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE
Moby-Dick has been recorded in the sailors' journals as the biggest, scariest and the most dangerous whale ever. In 1851, Herman Melville wrote a novel in which the chase of captain Ahab and other sailors from the ship Pequod for Moby-Dick turned into an epic adventure and cosmic struggle. In our performance, the main character is an unusual girl Rachel who dared to see Moby- Dick as a different being. She saw in it everything that has never been recorded in any travel journal.
While on vacation with her parents, Rachel again failed to learn to swim, but she listened to the sea, waves, wind and the murmur of shells, and then heard the song of whales that led her to a dangerous adventure and mission. Perhaps she invented or dreamed all of it, but her strength to recognise and fight for the good in every being would trigger a host of changes in everyone including herself.
In the collision of worlds, nature, and civilization, the past and the present, the greatest and farthest-reaching discoveries are still those that give rise to communication, sharing and love. It seems that the deepest depths are hidden in ourselves and other people, due to which it is easier for everyone to float on the surface. We are afraid to dive in. This is a play for swimmers and non-swimmers, for adventurers, travellers and the faint-hearted. For all those who are not afraid to get to know their fear because some wondrous beauty may be hidden in it. Moby-Dick is a poetic journey into adventures that change the world and the individual.
Snežana Trišić,
Director

ABOUT THE THEATRICAL ADAPTATION:
The theatrical adaptation of this capital literary work involved making a difficult decision about which topics should be opened and elaborated in dialogue with children. This novel is a great narrative not originally intended for children and its linguistic richness and narrative style do not allow too much room for traditional drama forms. However, the importance of the themes opened or suggested to the contemporary reader of Melville's novel is unquestionable. Although there are no female characters in the novel, the first decision in the process of theatrical adaptation was to introduce a female protagonist - a girl from the present time who travels through the magic world to the past where she faces the narrative of Moby-Dick. This narrative is also adapted with respect to the theme of the relationship between human beings and nature, i.e. their reconciliation.
This theatrical adaptation of Moby-Dick tells a story of adventure that connects the worlds of reality and fantasy, presented as the journey on which the child faces and gets free from her fears. This journey tackles the themes of the relationship between human beings and nature and between human beings and animals. Moby-Dick and the sea are taken also as symbols of fear from the unknown and as symbols of the nature that is being destroyed by humans in various ways.
Dimitrije Kokanov,
Playwright

ABOUT WHALES AND DREAMS
The girl had a dream. In that dream, she wakes up on the legendary ship Pequod, surrounded by the crew described by Herman Melville in his novel. The girl joins the chase for Moby-Dick.
In myths and legends, and this story can be considered as such, the hero wins the monster. That victory is usually an archetypal theme about the victory of our Ego over regressive tendencies. If the hero, or in our case the heroine, is a child, this victory is a symbol of growing up. What’s more, we find an extended meaning here - the girl Rachel has a desire to change the world around her by changing herself. She must agree with the devastating forces of nature and the sea monsters to reconcile people and nature and regain harmony. Before her immature Ego can win, she has to master her own fears and assimilate them. Rachel, a girl obsessed with a metaphysical search, is involved in an adventure where she has to experience both good and evil. Her awakening leads to an epilogue where the dreamer finally accepts the world as it is.
Мila Mašović-Nikolić,
Playwright

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Snežana Trišić was born in 1981 in Belgrade. In 2009, she graduated in stage and radio directing at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, in the class of Professors Nikola Jevtić and Alisa Stojanović.
In the period 2013-2015, she worked as a full-time director of the National Theatre in Subotica, after which she assumed the position of Assistant to Professor Ivana Vujić at the Department of Stage and Radio Directing at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. She completed doctoral studies in the field of drama and audio-visual arts at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade.
In 2015, she attended the International Directors’ Seminar organised by ASSITEJ Germany in cooperation with ASSITEJ International, at the Schnawwl Theatre in Mannheim, which is a branch of the National Theatre in Mannheim, one of the four national theatres in Germany, Mannheim.
As a winner of the KENNEDY SCHOLARSHIP (John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, U.S. State Department), she participated in the programme for theatre directors and attended numerous workshops, seminars and conferences in Washington, New York and Chicago in 2010.
Major plays:
Class by Matjaž Zupančič, National Theatre of Republika Srpska, Banja Luka (2009);
Samoudica by Aleksandar Radivojević, Atelje 212 (2009);
Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen, National Theatre in Belgrade (2011);
How Much Is Pâté? by Tanja Šljivar, Atelje 212 (2012);
Miracle in Poskokova Draga by Ante Tomić/ adapted by Maja Pelević, National Theatre in Subotica (2012);
The National Drama by Olga Dimitrijević, Bora Stanković Theatre in Vranje (2012);
Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi / adapted by Jelena Mijović, City Theatre Podgorica (2013);
Bizarre by Željko Hubač, National Theatre in Belgrade / Šabac Theatre (2013);
Mister Dollar by Branislav Nušić, National Theatre in Subotica (2014);
Rhinoceros by Eugène Ionesko, National Theatre Kikinda (2014);
Kasimir and Karoline by Ödön von Horváth, Atelje 212 (2014);
Noises off by Michael Frayn, National Theatre in Subotica (2015);
What Happened after Nora Left Her Husband or Pillars of Society by Elfriede Jelinek, Yugoslav Drama Theatre (2015);
Terrorism by Vladimir and Oleg Presnyakov, Belgrade Drama Theatre (2016);
Throat by Žanina Mirčevska, National Theatre Kikinda (2016);
Children of Joy by Milena Marković, Atelje 212 (2016);
Richard III by William Shakespeare, National Theatre in Belgrade (2017).
Her plays were performed in many festivals in the country and abroad and received numerous awards. The most significant are:
Kasimir and Karoline - ARDALION AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTION and BEST PLAY AWARD, 20th Yugoslav Theatre Festival, Užice, 2015

Kasimir and Karoline and Rhinoceros -  DIRECTION AWARD and BEST PLAY AWARD - 23rd Festival of Classics Vršac Theatre Autumn, Vršac, 2015
Kasimir and Karoline - STERIJA AWARD FOR DIRECTING AND BEST PLAY AWARD, 60th Sterija Theatre Festival, Novi Sad, 2015
Rhinoceros - DIRECTION AWARD and BEST PLAY AWARD, 65th Festival of Professional Theatres in Vojvodina, Kikinda, 2015
The National Drama - DIRECTION AWARD, 51th Festival of Professional Theatres of Serbia Joakim Vujić in Šabac, 2015
Mister Dollar - DIRECTION AWARD, Days of Comedy Festival in Jagodina, 2015
Bizarre - DIRECTION AWARD, First Performance Festival in Aleksinac, 2015
Rhinoceros - DIRECTION AWARD, JoakimInterFest in Kragujevac, 2014
Miracle in Poskokova Draga - BEST PLAY AWARD at the Fortress Theatre Festival in Smederevo, 2013
Pinocchio - BEST PLAY AWARD at 21st Kotor Children's Theatre Festival, according to the Children's Jury and the Jury of the City of Kotor, 2013
Hedda Gabler - BEST PLAY AWARD at the festival Theatre in Singlr Action in Mladenovac, 2011
Samoudica - DIRECTION AWARD LJUBOMIR-MUCI DRAŠKIĆ, Atelje 212 and the City of Belgrade, 2009
Family Stories - DIRECTION AWARD SETKANI / ENCOUNTER 2008 (International Festival of Theatre Schools in Brno), Czech Republic, 2008
Dr Hugo Klein AWARD for the best student of stage directing in the generation, Faculty of Dramatic Arts, 2007
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dimitrije Kokanov is a playwright and screenwriter. He works as a playwright in theatre Atelje 212 in Belgrade. He studied philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade. He graduated from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, Department of Dramaturgy in 2012. He completed interdisciplinary master studies of art and media theory at the University of Arts in Belgrade in 2013. Currently, he is a student of doctoral studies in the field of theory of dramatic arts, media and culture at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade.  He won the contests Slobodan Stojanović and Zoran Radmilović for original drama texts with his plays The Flyers (2009) and Fairy Dust (2011). His plays The Flyers (2010) and Fairy Dust (2011, 2013) were published. He publishes theoretical papers in the field of performance studies and theatrology in domestic and foreign journals. The following plays were publicly read: Bola Kolo directed by Saša Božić (Kolaž, Zagreb 2017); Fairy Dust directed by Snežana Trišić (UK Parobrod, Belgrade 2013); I'm not Warren Beatty directed by Ivan Vuković (Mikser Festival, Belgrade 2011). He won 2017 Mihiz Award. As a playwright, he collaborated with various directors and multimedia artists in Atelje 212 in Belgrade, the National Theatre in Subotica, the National Theatre in Belgrade, Madlenianum Opera and Theatre and Zemun Theatre, Zoran Radmilović Theater in Zaječar, the Youth Theatre Dadov in Belgrade, the Children's Cultural Center Belgrade, Student Cultural Centre( SKC) Belgrade, the Cultural Center Novi Sad. As a writer and playwright, he cooperates with the editorial staff of the Radio Belgrade Drama Programme. As a screenwriter, he cooperates with director Jelena Gavrilović: With Many Things to Come (2015) - short film; Nobody Here (2016) - short film, produced, supported by the Film Center Serbia under the title Skyscraper; The Lowest Place on Earth - script for feature film, supported by the Film Center Serbia in the category of feature film script development.
Dimitrije Kokanov is also a performer.