“They are no more”

The play “They are no more” (Njih više nema) premiered in Norway as part of the two-day international festival Ibsen Scope in Skien, the birthplace of Henrik Ibsen. On May 7th, across two sold-out slots, the audience had the opportunity to follow Sadika’s story: a tale of memory, forgetting, loss, and hope.

This stage project was produced by Heartefact, following a multi-year artistic research process. Its concept was honored in 2022 with the prestigious Ibsen Scope Grant, selected from 54 projects spanning thirty countries. At that time, Andrej Nosov, the play’s director, was among five artists chosen to develop and realize projects dedicated to contemporary social and political contexts.

“They are no more” deals with the artistic re-examination of the fates and consequences of the wars in the former Yugoslavia. Through both personal and collective perspectives, it opens a space for remembrance and confrontation.

The piece possesses a strong audio character: during the performance, the audience wears headphones through which the majority of the sonic and narrative layers unfold, shaping an intimate and focused viewing experience.

The cast features Mirjana Karanović, Svetozar Cvetković, and Alban Ukaj, alongside an ensemble of Sarajevo-based actors: Maja Salkić, Davor Sabo, Kemal Rizvanović, Matea Mavrak, Hana Zrno, Sanin Milavić, Faruk Hajdarević, Alen Konjicija, Natalia Dmitrieva, and Dino Hamidović.

Prior to its Norwegian run, the play premiered in Belgrade, Sarajevo, and New York. Today, it is part of the regular repertoire of Heartefact and the Sarajevo War Theatre (SARTR).

Upcoming performances in Belgrade are scheduled for June 6th, 7th, and 8th. Tickets are available on the tickets.rs website and at official Tickets outlets.

The play is a co-production of Heartefact (Serbia), SARTR (BiH), and My Balkans (USA, Serbia), in collaboration with La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (USA), Ibsen Scope (Norway), and the Allianz Foundation (Germany).

“Although based on months of research into real events, this project does not reach the audience in the form of documentary theatre, with an explicit socio-critical stance. To the traumas arising from the Srebrenica genocide, the play They Are No More approaches from an intimist perspective, attempting to slightly open the door to the inner world of the victims, those who survived, their memories, unfulfilled desires, and the fear of forgetting.” — Ivan Medenica, Radar (Serbia)

“Andrej Nosov’s direction subtly and diligently merges audio-drama expression with the psychologically suggestive performance of physically present actors. The sound design is carefully and minutely conceived, so that it almost completely envelops the viewer. These audio-landscapes unusually firmly direct the viewer’s attention to the emotionality of the performance, due to a special concentration achieved through ‘closure’ via headphones.” — Ana Tasić, Politika (Serbia)

“On one level, They Are No More has a similar ‘slipperiness’ as The Father by Florian Zeller, the hit play by the French writer about a man’s mind gradually fragmenting due to dementia, but in the case of Basha’s play, something else is happening: Sadika and Azem are from Srebrenica. It doesn’t take much for it to become clear to the audience where Sadika’s family disappeared to.” — Natasha Tripney, Cafe Europa

“Both in terms of theatrical volume and thematic sense, in short – an artistic upper-cut of the first order. It is an understatement to say that Mirjana Karanović is extraordinary in the role of a woman, without any explicit personal guilt, crushed by life, who fights both the hell of tragedies and the call of a new morning in her own veins. She achieved a whole spectrum of layers – from filigree-subtle yet granite-strong personal levels of the so-called ordinary person ground by the whirlwind of history, to the questioning of the deepest, anthropological secret foundations of the human being, and beyond.” — Tanja Nježić, Blic (Serbia)

“But it is not only the play with space that connects many of Heartefact’s productions, but also the idea of giving a voice to the marginalized – gay and trans persons, women, and economically vulnerable millennials. In the play They Are No More, Basha and Nosov have also given a voice to those affected by the Srebrenica genocide, and they did so in a gentle and empathetic way.” — Borisav Matić, SeeStage (WB6)

“Even if someone has no idea what happened in Srebrenica, after this play it will be crystal clear to them how those who survived feel. They will understand what it is like to imagine that your children could have had successful careers, could have been football players, could have had their own children, could have married, or even divorced… They could have done everything if only they hadn’t been killed.” — Marina Milivojević Mađarev, Vreme (Serbia)

“Doruntina Basha wrote a text that is not only a warning but also a kind of dramatic manifesto about suffering and its forgetting; a text that, by asking how much memory can stop future suffering, opens all the wounds of the ruthlessness and irrationality of human nature. (…) They Are No More speaks, of course, of those who disappeared, but also of all those who will, unfortunately, with today’s wars, disappear again. We and they — we will all be part of a memory that, if it continues to smolder in our spiritual lives, will again spin the circle of loneliness and alienation, instability, pointlessness, and destruction.” — Sašo Ognenovski, Nova Makedonija (North Macedonia)

“A parallel, imagined world is present in the headphones, which viewers use throughout. Technically executed with such precision that you might doubt whether the voices of a dozen non-living dinner participants were recorded. It feels as if the actors are sitting in the next room, joining the dialogue through which two realities intertwine. A poignant play, They Are No More, with a top-tier acting trio, on a topic that has been swept under the rug for too long.” — Aleksandra Glovacki, Novi Magazin (Serbia)

“What makes They Are No More so powerful is the care for the characters, devoid of any attempts at theatrical dramatization. The direction is restrained; the emotion is real, yet not overemphasized. Pain is revealed quietly, in the slow rhythm of family routine. There are no war scenes, only the traumas that the war left behind. (…) In this way, the play transcends the local context. It is a narrative that the entire Balkans can identify with, but also a universal reflection on survival, memory, and the agony of enduring.” — Dhurata Hoti, Kosovo 2.0. (Kosovo)

“The future that Sadika has built in her mind is made of the remnants of her past. But, even as that note repeats over and over, what it conveys on a fundamental level is how genocidal violence destroys the future, not just the past. ‘Not to forget’ is one thing, but ‘never to live the life you could have had’ is another. This is an extraordinary work of technical theatre by director Andrej Nosov and sound designers Nikola Erić and Luka Cvetko, both in terms of the mix of live and recorded audio-forms, and in the exceptional work of the actors, particularly Karanović, who balances the subtlety and micro-expressions of film acting in sound with the broader physicality of the stage.” — Loren Novek, Exeunt (New York, USA)

Written by P.U.L.S.E, published on 08/05/2026.

  “They are no more”, Art, Heartefact, Ibsen Scope, Theatre