The famous Globe Theatre from London has opened the third Shakespeare Festival with the play „The Two Gentlemen of Verona“. The Festival takes place at Villa Stanković in Čortanovci and will last until 4th July. UNIQA Insurance is the festival’s main sponsor.
The third Shakespeare Festival is taking place in Serbia in a beautiful setting of a castle on the Danube to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the great playwright’s death. The Festival presents contemporary national and international productions of William Shakespeare’s plays.
The idea behind this one-of-a-kind festival in this part of Europe is to nurture the work of the greatest dramatist by staging an attractive theatre programme under the open sky, just like in Shakespeare’s times. The audiences will be able to enjoy a rare opportunity of visiting one of the most beautiful summer residences in our country, built to mirror the medieval castles in Lombardy.
Director Nikita Milivojević is the brainchild behind the festival who got an idea for it after the premiere of Henry VI at the Globe Theatre in May 2012 which he directed. Apart from his great appreciation of Shakespeare, Nikita also wanted to turn Villa Stanković, a stunning location which is closed to the visitors, into an attractive cultural and tourist spot. The Festival is a part of the European network of Shakespeare festivals. The BETA News Agency has declared the festival one of the top 10 cultural events of 2014.
The Autonomous Province of Vojvodina and its Culture and Public Information Secretariat, the Municipality of Inđija, the Republic of Serbia’s Ministry of Culture and Information and UNIQA Insurance have all recognized the true value of investing in culture in the year when financial difficulties have plagued the organisation of the festival.