THEME: Woman - the secret through the Borgia family myth
N° OF CHARACTERS: 3 (1 male and 2 females)
N° OF ACTS: 24 scene
SETTING: A modestly furnished room with mirrors
TIME: The 16th century and today
WRITTEN IN: 2001

SUMMARY:
Lucretia Borgia became a myth in her own relatively short lifetime as an extraordinary beauty, the daughter of Pope Alexander VI. She inspired Renaissance painters and poets, and had a reputation as a harlot, poisoner and desecrater. Five hundred years later the play transforms the myth: Lucretia is no longer (only) a female criminal; she herself is the victim of crimes - those which take place somewhere in the darkness of a bedroom, far from the eyes of the public and morals. Lucretia Borgia's Smile is a drama of female identity, a creature searching for her own self. The young Lucretia, at the beginning of her life's journey, confront the Lucretia at the end, and their dialogue gradually tears away the layers of myth in the search for artistic truth - the denuded human being who yearns for the right to a life of her own and does not want to be instrumentalised.

A Happening for Lucretia was held at the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb on July 6 2001.

The play has been translated into English.

MAJA GREGL (Zagreb, 1957) graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy (1983) and the ADA (1982) in Zagreb. Since 1982, she has been writing radio plays and adaptations of works from Croatian theatre heritage, particularly from the time of the Modern. Her plays What On Earth Happened to Them? (1982) and Alma Mahler have won prizes (the Marin Drzic, 1996, and the Marul, 1999). In collaboration with Ivica Boban, the theatre director, her Alma Mahler was premiered on April 14 1999 at the &TD Theatre in Zagreb, it went through some 100 performances and won important awards at theatre festivals throughout Croatia. Maja Gregl works for the Croatian Radio Television Drama Programme and has been script editor for a series of films for established young directors (such as Bresan, Nola, and Hribar), and for television adaptations. She has written radio plays including Yvette's Letters, Four Roses, The Secret of the Cliff, Klara Schumann, and Alma Mahler, and radio short stories, Brest on the Kupa, Letters to Tomas, Answer and The Promise. Her most recent play, Lucretia Borgia's Smile, published by Modern Times, has been written for Veronika Durbesic, the actress.