The play premiered at the end of September in Londonderry in Northern Ireland (due to a misunderstanding related to the costumes, the theatre ensemble was arrested for endangeing the safety of the public at the airport in Belfast), and then first performed in Sarajevo and Mostar.

Through nine scenes, the spectator is given an insight into the past events in Palestine, Nortnern Ireland, Chile, Vietnam, Cambodia, Auschwitz, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ruanda and the Middle East. The leading performing actors are Cornelius Macarthy (as the philosopher Bertrand Russell), Željko Hrs, Damjana Černe, Matt Faris, Saša Handžić, Dermott Hickson, Mona Muratović, Patrick J. O'Reilly, Shane O'Reilly, Christopher Simpson, Thomas Steyaert, and musicians Neil Martin and Rod McVey.

The play has been coproduced by Mladinsko Theatre from Ljubljana, Prime Cut Production from Belfast and East West Centre from Sarajevo.

The play took its name from the title of a book by the British philosopher Bertrand Russell. According to Pašović, the play relates to the philosopher’s work and the thought that the secret of happiness is in “facing the fact that the world is a terrible, terrible, terrible place”. Željko Hrs, an actor from the Mladinsko Theatre, who has witnessed “the worst criminals, from Josef Mengele to Slobodan Milošević”, explains that he has spent quite some time wondering if this could even be put on stage.

“The process on its own is extremely arduous, mentally and physically. Every time, after each stage, we thought we had shed all the tears for these people that we possibly could have, but it turned out time and again that we hadn’t,” says Hrs, adding: “These are real people we’re talking about. This is not Macbeth; these are the people who actually did this. It’s hard to recreate these events, let alone play them over and over again.”

Next stop Belfast

There will be another performance of the play at the Tovarniška hala Gorenje hall (between Lek Factory and Žak Stadium) on Saturday, and then the play is moving to Belfast. The performances in Ljubljana are accompanied by the opera choir of SNG Opera and Ballet Ljubljanaled by Željka Ulnič Remic and the RTV Slovenija Youth Choir led by Tomaž Pirnat. Altogether, there will be around 100 performing artists on stage.