Confessional and deeply affecting, at once fierce and tender, Your Love Is King is a play by Espi Tomičić, one of the most compelling emerging voices in contemporary drama. The piece weaves together personal and family narratives—from a mother’s illness and a complex sibling relationship to the author’s transition and fragments of a childhood marked by trauma and the struggle to survive. Director Rajna Racz reimagines this intimate monologue on the stage of Mala Gavella as a multi-voiced performance for several performers, foregrounding the layered, visceral quality of Tomičić’s writing.
Text by: Espi Tomičić / Director: Rajna Racz / Cast: Matija Gašpari, Domagoj Janković, Antonija Stanišić Šperanda, Sven Medvešek, Laura Kaliger / Set Designer: Sara Haas / Costume Designer: Petra Bobić / Dramaturgs: Rajna Racz and Jan Samek / Composer: Marin Živković / Lighting Designer: Zdravko Stolnik / Movement Director and Choreographer: Matea Bilosnić / Assistant Set Designer: Davor Horvat / Visual Identity: Ivona Đogić Đurić – Crtaona Studio
Espi Tomičić (1995) is a dramaturge and writer whose work engages with intimate, political, and socially relevant themes, with a focus on gender equality, queer experience, and the transformative power of theatre. He graduated in Dramaturgy from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb and completed the educational programme at the Centre for Women’s Studies.
He is the author of a number of award-winning plays, among which Don’t Forget to Cover Your Feet stands out, having received the Dean’s Award, been translated into English and Polish, performed on HRT, on the Drame.hr platform, at ZKM, and published in the book 4 Plays. He is the recipient of the third Marin Držić Award for the text #ileaveyoumycodesandthankyouforthefriendship. His texts Your Love Is King, Put the Water on for Coffee, and others have been published in relevant editions and anthologies.
He has worked as a dramaturg on the performance Arbajt (Perforacije, 2021) and on projects with WHW and Theo Prodromidis. This year, his play Be Always Like a Dragon will premiere at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, where he plays with genres, temporal layers, and theatrical form, creating a work that is both deeply intimate and politically engaged.
He is a columnist for the Booksa portal, and his work is marked by an exploration of the boundaries of theatrical form, genre, and identity.
