“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”
This sentence can still set the world ablaze — if we believe in it.
We do not mock the Declaration; we bring it back to life — into sweat, into the body, into the voice.
UTOPIA is a reminder that nobility of spirit is not something to be ashamed of.
UTOPIA is a theatre of the world that does not abandon its ideals, even when it seems that everything is lost.
UTOPIA does not preach, does not proclaim — it searches for the spark beneath the ashes.
UTOPIA is a theatre that believes in dignity, in resistance, in humanity.
And utopia begins the moment someone truly desires it.
“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”

Utopia is a stage embodiment of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights — word for word, body to body, voice to voice. It is a performance that does not treat this document as a historical footnote, but as living material: a text that still pulses, aches, and exposes.

Utopia is composed of sentences we believe we know, yet which deeply surprise us when we hear them. It is a reminder that there exists a document that guarantees human dignity. The Declaration was born in 1948, as a response to war, mass destruction, and the systematic humiliation of human beings. Its articles were meant to form the foundations of a new world. Today, these sentences sound like questions addressed to the present: where do we stand in relation to what we once promised?

This performance strikes head-on. The text of the Declaration is neither softened, nor explained, nor adapted — it resounds with its full weight of meaning. The body of actress Crnkovity Gabriella carries the words through space, bringing them into collision with contemporary experiences of inequality, violence, fear, and normalized injustice. What is inscribed as a universal right now echoes as a radical demand.

Utopia lingers on the concept of human dignity — the very foundation upon which the Declaration is built. Why have we lost it? The performance opens a space in which the gap between declared values and reality becomes starkly visible — a world where rights are selective and freedom is conditional. This gap is not theoretical; it is physical, present, tangible.

The direction of Urbán András creates a powerful, uncompromising stage language in which the Declaration becomes a political — but perhaps even more importantly, an emotional — event. The dramaturgical focus lies on responsibility: individual, collective, and societal. The text does not belong to the past — it unfolds here and now, in front of the audience, in the shared space where we inhabit the same time and the same reality.

Utopia is a reminder. A repetition of forgotten lessons. An insistence that human rights are more than empty phrases, more than a legal framework, more than formal consensus. They are standards by which a society is measured day after day.

At a moment when injustice is relativized, violence is justified, and dignity nearly disappears, this performance restores the Declaration to where it belongs — the center of public space. Not as an ideal, but as an obligation.

If today the words freedom, equality, and rights sound like utopia, then Utopia is the mirror in which we clearly see why.

Vedrana Božinović, dramaturge

Played by
Gabriella Crnkovity, Aljoša Tasovac, Biljana Šunjka Crnojević, Mina Stojanović

Director's associate, dramaturge: Vedrana Božinović
Composer: Irena Popović Dragović

Awards:
• Dezső Kovács Award for Best Actress to Gabriella Crnkovity – 38. Festival of Hungarian Theatres in Kisvárda
• Best Performance – Nišville Jazz Theater Festival 2026

* Warning: Strong light effects are used in the show! *

Photos: Srđan Doroški

Duration: 00:45

Gallery