NEW THEATER SHOW ABOUT TENNIS AIMS AT INTERNATIONALS LIVING IN THE NETHERLANDS

The world of sports can sometimes get surprisingly political. Individual athletes get caught up in the machinations of geopolitics. Often they’re not very political people themselves, hyperfocused as they have to be on their sport. But especially when they’re representing their home countries in international competition, they are often equated with the actions their governments take. Sometimes this leads to remarkable exclusions at tournaments like the Olympics, Wimbledon and recently the Gymnastics Championships in Indonesia.

Vanja Rukavina

Vanja Rukavina (1989) is a well established Dutch actor with a former-Yugoslavian background. He fled Sarajevo weeks before the siege in 1992 and experienced The Netherlands in the mid-nineties as a refugee. The exclusion of international Russian, Belarusian and Israeli athletes in the wake of international conflicts fascinated him terribly. After having sacrificed everything to be able to compete at the world stage, they suddenly see their dreams go up in smoke because of issues completely outside their own control. Rukavina: “This huge contrast between dedication and dependency makes for a tragic figure that I thought could teach us a lot about what it means to try and achieve excellence when you have bicultural heritage”.

Soft spot

Besides geopolitics getting in the way of individuals’ dreams, Vanja Rukavina has a soft spot for the bad boys of tennis. Mold-breaking stars like Novak Ɖoković, Nick Kyrgios, John McEnroe and Serena Williams defy conventions and create space for a diversity of identities in a traditionally quite formal world. “I can spend hours on Youtube replaying explosive reactions to missed points or umpire decisions, and particularly love the press conferences after a match”, Rukavina says. “It often seems like the last thing they want to do after having lost or won a match is talk to journalists in front of a camera. I wanted to tell a story through these on-camera moments. These athletes are growing up in public and often have to respond to questions about things they know very little about.”

Pressure Point

Vanja Rukavina’s production PRESSURE POINT, tells the story of a fictional world number 1 in tennis: Viktor Rađenović. “With Viktor I created an alter ego for myself where I mix my story with Novak Ɖoković’s. The audience won’t be able to know what’s inspired by Novak and what elements I secretly weaved in from my own life” Rukavina says with a scheming glint in his eyes. “But that’s not the point: I want the audience to relate to the story of someone who despite himself becomes a pawn in a game that far exceeds him. People living outside of their home country will all recognise this feeling to some extent. I explicitly want to make theater that’s relevant to non-Dutch residents in this country.”

PRESSURE POINT runs from 12 November until 28 February.
Check vanjarukavina.nl for dates in theaters near you.