Goran Stefanovski: În căutarea Itacăi pierdute
Goran Stefanovski: In Search of the Lost Ithaca

Summary/Abstract: A distinguished playwright, a dedicated scriptwriting professor and an artist with a conscience, Goran Stefanovski has apparently been destined to oscillate between his native Macedonia, shaken by the horrors of the 1990s Yugoslav Wars, and England, his adoption country. As a citizen of the Western Europe, he could find solace, security and recognition, but he has never ceased to feel uprooted. Several of his post-war plays – Euralien (1998), Hotel Europa (2000), Odiseu (2012) – approach from different angles themes like alienation, wandering and home-longing, experimenting, at the same time, with the itinerant performance, aimed to explore a labyrinthine space. A fictional projection of his author, Odysseus is consumed with nostalgia. Born under the sign of ambivalence, he constantly bears in mind the idealized image of his beloved home, while he wanders the world, striving to conquer it in its entirety. The sea, a powerful symbol of life that goes on and on, irrevocably changing everything, eventually succeeds in forever separating Odysseus from his Ithaca: when he returns home, he finds it again in name only. However, the sea cannot prevent “the wise Odysseus” from recovering the lost Ithaca from the depths of his heart, soul, and memory.

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