The man who saved Europe

"The man who saved Europe", theatre play played by ZKM theatre (Zagreb) is Rene Medvesek's new original project and the third part of a trilogy that consists of plays "Next door" and "Best soup! Best soup!", a trilogy that ponders upon destinies of real and made up marginal people, that questions life in Croatia but also talks about the present in Europe, without avoiding the perspectives of our near and distant past and future. 

There is a Dutch legend about a boy named Pieter who saved the city of Haarlem, by putting his finger into a leaky hole on sea mound. Pieter, with his sacrificial act represents the Dutch struggle with the sea. And on that legend, Antun Soljan based his radio-play "The man who save Europe" about a Croat, temporarily working in the Nedherlands, that by accident, heroically ends up just like Pietr and finishes in the center of public focus of both Croatia and the Nedherlands.  Adventures and accidents of  a guest worker Mate, in a funny way talk about a whole series of topics that today, when Croatia is standing in front of the gate of European union and her place and part in this big economic and cultural union is being questioned,  are even more current than they were in time when Soljan wrote the piece that has been translated in more then 10 languages and performed on numerous radio stations.