Who Killed Janis Joplin?
Serbia
Ko je ubio Dženis Džoplin?
direction
Sonja Petrović
text
Tijana Grumić
The story of the woman behind the legend and plenty of music by this extraordinary blues and rock singer.
language
Serbian with German & English surtitles
duration
110 min
more about the artist
The American rock and blues musician Janis Joplin belongs to the generation that shook up the norms and traditional role models of the Western world in the 1960s. It was the time of the civil rights movement, demands for democratic values and rights for all and revolt against a political establishment that was hardly willing to change, but certainly willing to wage war. Pop history includes Joplin, who died in 1970 at 27, like Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison, in the “live fast, love hard, die young” generation: mythologised by her early death and immortalised in her music. End of story?
Why would a young Serbian director, a writer and an acting ensemble be interested in Joplin today, born in 1943 in Port Arthur, Texas? What do they find in this exceptional singer’s poetic and biographical cosmos, in her attitude and feeling for life, which Joplin was able to give a voice to like maybe no one else? And why the question about her death? Sonja Petrović’s production creates a link between the myth and its starting point. With Joplin’s music, she celebrates the party of her life and at the same time tells the story of the woman behind the legend: the story of someone who did not follow the prevailing norm.
Sonja Petrović, *1990, studied directing at the theatre academies in Novi Sad (BA) and Belgrade (MA). WHO KILLED JANIS JOPLIN? was created 2020 in collaboration with the European Youth Capital Novi Sad 2019 and the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad as her third professional piece as a director. In her hometown of Bačka Palanka, she is also director of the Festival of Ecological Theatre for Children and Young People.
With Sonja Kesler, Bojana Milanović, Dimitrije Aranđjelović, Vukasin Ranđelović, Stefan Vukić, Igor Sakač, Petar Banjac, Filip Grubać
Direction Sonja Petrović
Text adaptation Sonja Petrović, Tijana Grumić / Dramaturgy Nikolina Đukanović / Costume Senka Ranosavljević / Scenography Željko Piškorić / Illustrations in the scenography Nada Božić & Ana Mihajlov Čupić / Lighting Design Nikola Marinkov / Sound Stefan Seethaler / Choreography Mira Beba Dobrković / German Surtitles, Setup & Operator Jelena Dabic / English Surtitles Charlotte Wührer / Technical Support Jakob Gerber