Reasons for My Silence

This image is the reason I haven't posted anything substantial for a long time. So don't blame me; blame it. I've been hard at work creating this show from the ground up with the invaluable help of Rhys from Stop Panicking (which sounds like sage advice given opening night is now only two and a half weeks away!).

If you've got a spare evening at the end of this month I'd love to see you at the show. Here is my attempt to woo you in the only way I know how (fwiw- this is all new. I'm not just regurgitating the media release):

VILLANUS is me alone on stage save for some high and low-tech gadgetry, items salvaged from garages across Melbourne and many hundreds of metres of brown packing tape holding it together. VILLANUS is some words Rhys and I wrote together and alone. It's also a lot of words we couldn't and didn't want to write. VILLANUS is part reaction to the times, part autobiography, part lies. Part visual art, part film, mostly theatre. VILLANUS is sometimes dark, sometimes humorous, often both at the same time. Often in spite of itself. VILLANUS started with the question how does one conceive of him/herself if they're constantly being called a villain? It examines the paranoia, hypocrisy and self importance that caused such a question to be asked. But VILLANUS is guilty of all this too and more. VILLANUS is a character assassination.

Hi. My name is Vlad. I'm an artist. I was born in Serbia. I was told I was a villain.

If you are reading this now, it means that I have been murdered.
This is a story of how it happened.
This is an actual person.
This is the softest I can whisper.
This is a diagram of the scars and wounds I have on my body.
This is the loudest I can scream.
This is the longest I can hold my breath.
This is the ash of a moth burnt to a crisp.
This is villain written in Cyrillic characters.
And it goes for one hour, seven minutes and thirty-six seconds.

This is a lie

Welcome Stranger presents
VILLANUS
by Vlad Mijic & Rhys Auteri

Dates: 23 August - 2 September 2007
Venue: Old Council Chambers, Trades Hall (cnr Lygon and Victoria St)
Times: Tues - Sat @8pm, Sun @5pm
Tickets: $20 full $15 concession (2-4-1 tix Tues)
Bookings: 9782 2625 or villanus_theatre@yahoo.com.au
This project has been produced with the support of the City of Melbourne.

VILLANUS is Welcome Stranger's return to the Melbourne stage after an almost 3 year absence. It follows our productions of my play The End of Civil Twilight, Martin Crimp's Attempts on Her Life and Rhys Auteri's Towards Omelas. For me it's both an exciting and terrifying prospect. Hope you can all come see it.

Apologies that my first post after such a long hiatus is shameless self-promotion. Hopefully, I'll be able to post more regularly from September and offer some interesting Fringe and Melb Fest coverage (16 shows booked so far). Perhaps I'll even finish the, I'm ashamed to admit, numerous abandoned posts I have sitting around on file waiting to be loved again.