»After several rather intimate, introverted atoms (e.g. Schneewittchen After Party or Medea Material, both performed at Cankarjev dom in Ljubljana), it seems that Ivica Buljan, with his actual performance, has created a molecule, filled on one hand with content contexts and on the other hand with his own directing poetics, where, in my opinion, he stepped quite few steps further after Medea. Anyhow, the director's feeling for detail keeps fascinating again and again, always in combination with an extraordinary ear for the ground text itself. Koltes's text works as some sort of estrangement from the original Hamlet, his specific compendium actually holding up to crucial bones in the old skeleton, yet filled up with original subject matter. What we get is no interpretation of Hamlet but – although this is one of the author's early texts – an independent theatrical essay on a known topic… As for the idea, the product is an exceptionally dense performance, certainly not held back by the acting. In my opinion, Buljan's directing of The Day of Murders in the Story of Hamlet has given us one of the best performances of this year's season.« (Večer, The Salt Giving Sound to a Coral, by Anja Golob, 13/1/2005)
»Considering the understandable presumption that the spectator is naturally acquainted with the concrete reason of the tensions, we are witnessing the explosive thickening of the conflict leading to the final death of all the involved. First, there are Claudius (Robert Waltl) and Gertrude (Veronika Drolc): he is more sovereign and at times even wiser, but as a murderer less authorative that we are accustomed to; she is rather of one piece, less split and more debauched, more a lover than a mother. And then there is Hamlet (Jose), equally doubtful, perhaps less hurt and not so investigative as he is angry; with a murderous smile he gives to Ophelia the fatal: »… I did not love you. Go! To a brother, to a monastery …« And she (Minca Lorenci), much more insane, less pretty, but therefore more lucid than in cannon interpretations. Their captivity within the four pillars reminds us of contemporary family traumas along with the entire psychoanalytic legacy, mainly Oedipal; the stylised and heavy moves and wrestling within the square covered with a thick layer of salt that melts on their overheated bodies (eating them up?) appear like some attempt of archaic solution of the conflict within a ritual measuring of power. It is only outside this privileged yet cursed space that some pause is possible – for Hamlet to have a jolly dance, for the blood-stained couple to retreat into erotic oblivion …« (Dnevnik, The Yet-Unplayed Koltes, Tanja Lesničar Pučko, 10/1/2005)
»This is absolutely not about an instant variant of the famous tragedy, and neither about some ambitious post-modern variety retreating from the original after having used it. On the contrary, Koltes's text is uses emblematic characters peeling them to their core in a drama turning from inside to themselves… The director Ivica Buljan places this drama of insane human psycho, of pain in human striving, of sorrow in human aberration towered like Damocles’ sword by the politics, of corrupt authority and sick ambition, into some intimistic ambient designed by Slaven Tolj. The space of the play - where Hamlet as a contemporary hero is trying to solve the entangled puzzle of destructive doubts about his world and his home – is designed as a small arena filled with a thick layer of salt …
This Buljan's performance, too, is excelling with its powerful and recognisable theatrical language filled with his sense for detail – a theatrical language turning into a functional metonymy. A special issue in his work process is the attention he dedicates to the dramaturgy of the costumes (designed by Ana Savić Gecan). Furthermore, the main interpretation elements through which his actors construct their roles are represented by an entire scale of voices, tones and colours creating a great number of moods and feelings …« (Vjesnik, Hamlet's Day of Trial, Helena Braut, 25/1/2005)
»Holding faithfully to Koltes's ground text, Buljan's visually rich chamber performance has strongly touched the spectators' senses, and the excellent interpretation of the actors has touched their feelings …
The cruel Gertrude with her stone face is spending more time being a lover than dealing with her motherly feelings; she was brilliantly interpreted by Veronika Drolc; her partner Robert Waltl in the role of Claudius excels for his acting qualities, yet Jose as Hamlet and Minca Lorenci as Ophelia are not far behind with their interpretations…« (Slobodna Dalmacija, The True State of Dark, Katarina Kolega, 26/1/2005)
