Great women from (stage) literature such as Antigone, Medea, Gretchen, Marie and Jane occasionally appear in the cold black-and-white video images of a raid.
Where she previously gave her own twist to the baroque (Lost is my Quiet Forever) and to classical ballet (Les Sylphides), choreographer and director Nicole Beutler relates in 1: SONGS to characters from well-known drama texts and novels. They come to life through the voice and body of Mitrovic, who combines power with subtlety.
The stories of the (anti-)heroines are not brought up literally. In Mitrovic – sober grey-black dress, bright red lipstick – their essence comes together: their fiery and unrelenting passion for life and love, but also for death. To contemporary electronic music by Gary Shepherd, Mitrovic whispers, sings, speaks and screams their words, their suffering, into a new story.
Mitrovic is those fictional women from back then, but also such a woman in real life today. She plays her role(s) as fully as possible, but more and more often you forget those other women and you only see her in her steadily increasing crisis. Moreover, and this creates another layer of meaning, she frequently comments on her own playing. A heart cry like 'Alas, my heart is breaking!' comes from deep down, but at the same time pokes fun at the vehemence with which pop and rock stars let emotions flow into the microphone.
1: SONGS is a pleasantly contrarian concert in every respect.