Zlatko Pranjic arrived from Zagreb in September 1993. He was evacuated from Croatia as part of an official programme organised by the UN. In London he is heavily involved in theatre, and has recently helped to establish a new company called Theatre With Accent.
Q: Zlatko, you mentioned that recently you founded a theatre group, or theatre company, called Theatre with Accent.
Yes, actually I was one of founders. It was my… initially my idea, but many credits belong to Janis Mitchell, Canadian producer, and Dubravka Kokot who is a trustee of our theatre. My position is unclear, I'm a kind of Artistic Director of this organization but this is only a position that, as we don't have any funds yet, we basically invest our own money in this organization still. It was like…an old idea of mine establishing a theatre, how would I call it… group of people who would challenge status quo of London's art and theatre… I would say… establishment, because it's very difficult, it's hard to exercise this kind of art activities in London as it is, like doing a theatre because somehow London and England have certain… like… I wouldn't say prejudice but like certain standards that…and those standards are like…it's difficult to get into this business if you don't speak fluent English, I would say Shakespearean English, proper English, whatever, without accent.
So I decided to remove the stigma from it by simply calling my group, naming it Theatre with Accent, so at the very beginning of all our projects you, everybody could see that we are actually admitting this handicap, I deliberately say handicap, it's not a handicap, but this is how we live with it. It shouldn't be a handicap. That's why this theatre is being established by that name - Theatre with Accent.
What are we planning to do? We're planning actually to attract many international artists from all around the world who speak different languages, to whom English is the second language. To bring them together and try to produce theatre of high standards, high quality, because we, the Theatre with Accent, we strongly believe that accent shouldn't be a handicap.
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