Director Ivica Buljan presents Bernard-Marie Koltes' urban tragedy Roberto Zucco at the Maladype Theatre. A powerful psychological thriller based on a infamous true story, Roberto Zucco follows the sinister adventure of a serial killer; a young lost soul driven to commit terrible crimes without motive.



Italian Roberto Succo, aged 18, was sent to prison after violently murdering his parents. 5 years later, he escaped and went on the run, defying police in 3 countries. Changing his identity many times, he embarked on a horrific 2 years crime spree undetected: burgling, raping, killing.

 A cross between Tarantino and Žižek working over the themes of Hamlet, and reaching back to the myths of Oedipus and Icarus; this play brings the suspense of film noir to the stage.

 Roberto Zucco was written close to the playwright’s death, but it’s also syrupy sweet at times, proof that Koltes felt sentiment and forgiveness toward the generally foul lot of characters he had drawn. After all, they’re only behaving as they’re expected to behave, caught in the absurd hurricane of an antihero’s preemptive fate.

Ivica Buljan (born 1965) is one of Croatian drama’s most successful exports, favouring a total theatre of movement, text, spectacle and music that can confidently take on contemporary drama or radically reinterpret the classics without losing the audience on the way. Despite serving as director of the Croatian National Theatre in Split 1998-2002 he has spent most of his career working independently of the big institutions. He directs as often in Slovenia as in his home country: he co-founded Ljubljana’s Mini Teater in order to stage plays by contemporary playwrights, and was the first non-Slovene artist to be awarded the nation’s Prešeren Prize. Since 2003 he has been director of the Zagreb International Theatre Festival, which brings ground-breaking international work to the Croatian capital every September. Buljan is famous for choosing collaborators from the non-theatre world, renowned for building a collective spirit among cast members who are frequently subjected to extended physical workouts.

Roberto Zucco is a project of Mini Teater, Novo Kazalište Zagreb and Maladype Theater.
This is not the first time Maladype and Mini teater work together; in 2007 Zoltán Balázs staged Tristan and Isolde with seven brilliant Slovenian actors in Ljubljana which was invited to the 47th Borstnik International Theatre Festival in Maribor the same year.

The performance was created within the international European projects »Puppet Nomad Academy 3« and »Experimental Theatre Academy«, financially supported by the European Comission, programme Culture (2007-2013). This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. The project is financially supported by Ministry of culture Republic of Croatia, Ministry of culture Republic of Slovenia, Municipality of Ljubljana in City of Zagreb and NKA of Budapest.

The language of the performance is Hungarian, English and Italian.

Director: Ivica Buljan

Costume: Ana Savic Gecan
Set: Son.DA
Playreader: Robert Waltl

Actors: Senka Bulic, Rita Kerkay, Mátyás Lazók, Zoltán Lendváczky, Ákos Orosz, Zsolt Páll, Erika Tankó

After the opening night in Budapest (23rd November) there will be a premier in Ljubljana (28th November) and one in Zagreb (January 2014).