THEME: Fear, conflict, compromise, and adaptation
N° OF CHARACTERS: 7 (4 male, 3 female)
N° OF ACTS: 1
SETTING: Undefined
TIME: Undefined
WRITTEN IN: 2000

SUMMARY:
A stranger arrives in a small, self-satisfied community. Her name is Maja or Maya, depending on whom you ask. She is not quite sure that she has arrived at the right place, but when she establishes that she has, she is no longer sure that she wants to stay. If anything exists which would make her part of the community, she has not managed to uncover it, but she decides to stay on and fight for the place to which - in her opinion, at least - she is entitled. This small community (family, working community, whatever) is equally surprised at her arrival and confused by the fact that someone does not function according to the same rules that they do. After the initial preplexity, fear of the unknown emerges, followed by rejection as a less complicated solution than dialogue and, finally, by the beginning of the disintegration of an entity which had seemed perfect. A work assignment has to be carried out quickly and effectively. There is no time for discussion, dilly-dallying and thinking it all through. It is only after the task - with Maya's help - has been carried out more quickly, effectively and even in a more entertaining manner than ever before, that everyone is prepared to listen to the other side.

The play deals with the model of an ostensibly functioning family which, in fact, is far from being one.

SELMA DIMITRIJEVIC is a degree candidate in Dramaturgy at the ADA in Zagreb. She has studied Literature and Croatian Language at the Teacher's Faculty in Osijek. She lives in Glasgow, Zagreb and Osijek. She is one of the authors of Alaska Jack, performed at the Osijek CNT in 1999. She was co-writer of the script for the documentary films Juric: Tvrda 99 (2000) and The Blacks Endured (2001). She has translated into Croatian the play Knives in Hens (David Harrower), as well as the novels White Teeth (Zadie Smith), How Late It Was, How Late (James Kelman) and Night People (Barry Gifford). Her story Impotence was published in Literary Review magazine in 1994. Selma works as a journalist for the Nedjeljna Dalmacija weekly.