Anica Tomić
Anica Tomić is a theatre director and Full Professor at the Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek. She graduated in Comparative Literature and Croatian Language and Literature from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, and in Theatre Directing and Radio Broadcasting from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb.
She was awarded scholarships at the Amsterdam University of the Arts (Amsterdam), Indiana University of Pennsylvania (Department of Directing), and KulturKontakt Austria — Writers in Residence in Vienna. She is the founder of the amateur theatre group «Theatre de Femmes», one of the most significant Croatian alternative theatre groups of the 1990s, active from 1995 to 2003.
Tomić has directed numerous drama productions and devised theatre projects in Croatian and international theatres, including Prešernovo Gledališče Kranj, Royal Theatre Zetski Dom, Montenegro;EPK Maribor,Slovenia, EPK Novi Sad, Serbia, Slovensko Ljudsko Gledališče Celje,Slovenia, National Theatre Sombor, Serbia, Schauspielhaus Graz, Deutsches Theater Berlin, and Tiroler Landestheater Innsbruck. She has also directed various cultural events such as Open City Day, White Nights, and the Festival of Lights.
She serves on numerous professional committees and, since 2021, has been a member of the ETC – European Theatre Convention Women Directors Networking Group. She regularly collaborates with dramaturge Jelena Kovačić. Alongside contemporary reinterpretations of classical plays, which she rewrites and reimagines, she also creates original projects closely connected to socially marginalized individuals and groups, as well as to the position of women in society.
Her work examines various systems of repression imposed on marginalized communities and addresses issues rooted in deeply distorted socio-economic and political structures, resulting in frustration, intolerance, fear, xenophobia, peer violence, and misogyny. She is actively engaged in advocating for women’s rights, children’s rights, and human rights. She is also one of the co-founders of the #Spasime initiative, which brought the issue of domestic violence into the public sphere.
She has received around thirty national and international awards for directing and best productions. Her recent productions currently on repertoire include «Nora oder Wie man das Herrenhaus kompostiert» by Sivan Ben Yishai at Deutsches Theater Berlin, «Safe House», based on motifs from Marina Vujčić’s novel about domestic and gender-based violence, performed at Gavella Drama Theatre in Zagreb, and «This could be my class», about digital violence between young people, Croatian national Theatre Ivan pl.Zajc, Rijeka
During the 26/27 season, she will be directing Marina Davydova’s «Land ohne Wiederkehr» at the Residenztheater.
Performing in
The Soviet Union is on the brink of collapse. In Azerbaijan, pogroms are taking place against the Armenian minority. Young Lada is forced to leave her beloved homeland. She finds a new home in Moscow. Decades later, as a critic of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, she is forced to flee once again. Renowned theatre director Marina Davydova draws on her own experiences to recount the devastating impact that political upheaval has on individuals and the hardships of life in exile.
Land ohne Wiederkehr (Land of no Return)