Working for Grad Teatar (was) a matter of prestige

The performances "Banović Strahinja, "A Midsummer Night's Dream", "Karolina Neuber", "Ivanov" are productions and co-productions by which the "Grad Teatar" festival has been recognized for more than two decades, and the name associated with these performances and the festival itself is director Nikita Milivojević. This year, at the 35th "Grad Teatar" festival, he directed the long-awaited play "Green Choja Montenegro", which was based on the motifs of the novel of the same name by Mom Kapor in collaboration with Zuk Džumhur.

The play "Green Choja of Montenegro" is a co-production of JU "Grad Teatar", the Belgrade Drama Theater and the City Theater from Podgorica and tells about the friendship of the Montenegrin prince Nikola Petrović and Osman Pasha Sarhoš, captured in the battle of Vučje dol, in July 1876.

In the conversation, director Nikita Milivojević points out that this is one of the topics, but that there are many more that were interesting to him.

"When you read a novel, you have some impression of it, there is some desire and maybe there is a possibility, or you are looking for it, how to translate it into some stage language. I remember when the novel appeared in the nineties it was a big hit. I remember that he made an interesting and pleasant impression on me then. What I particularly liked was this terribly interesting combination of something that is historically accurate and something that is almost on the verge of being impossible. You were on the very edge of fantasy and something that history has already adopted and conquered as true events. That combination was so interesting and unusual for me that there already appeared to me a space for an interesting screen adaptation. You can see that, you immediately recognize the material that offers you that or not. I wasn't surprised at all when I found out later that they wrote the script first," says Milivojević and continues the conversation...

How did you come across this story again?

A lot of time has passed since then and they called me from the Budva Theater City, they sent me the novel to read again and asked me if I was interested in it. You know, it's one of those novels that you read in one night. That's what happened in Athens, in one night I read the novel and the same impression in my stomach that I had in the nineties appeared again, which means that it is a story that was written in a very skillful, interesting and exciting way , where some times always intertwine, where imagination and reality touch so much that you do not distinguish where one ends and the other begins, where fiction ends and where reality begins and vice versa. That was very exciting for me, always when there are such stories, I recognize something for my theater. It is something that is close to me. For a moment, it reminded me of the novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude" where times also mix, where historical characters intertwine with contemporary characters, and in some new time they all meet. Grandfathers, grandsons, great-grandsons, contemporaries. That was my impression, feeling and reason to go into this whole story, because it triggered my imagination.

The audience must have certain expectations considering that the novel is well known to them and they have all read it, some of them probably more than once. What kind of reaction do you expect?

First, you should always start from the fact that the play creates its own authentic language. A written text is a written text, the word that is read and the word that is spoken on stage are not the same. They do not have the same effect. So, with that, you should start watching the play, it is an authentic whole that has all the elements from the novel that I thought should be in it. When a director directs, he always thinks about the kind of visual language and some emotion he needs to convey to the viewer. If that emotion passes, if that visual language of the play is exciting, imaginative and interesting enough for the viewer, I no longer have any doubts. Of course, everyone will learn something of their own and there is no need to discuss it at all. If I were to think about who was going to upload, I would never be able to do my show.

So there is no concern?

I don't have it. Now that's a good sign for me. These nights we managed to do a couple of chases and if you had asked me ten days ago, I might have had some concern because everything had to be adapted here, this is an open space. We have freed the performance from everything that could be a hindrance to it and for it to organically become a whole in this space. You always have to see what a space offers to your performance and what it takes away from it. Always try to make it an organic part of that whole. When I first saw this space, I thought it was playable because it is very simple in style.

Is there a historical connection with this space?

That's especially exciting. I love those spaces where you feel that your time is not the only one, you are not the center of the world, that you were born long before you were born. And the future is as much a part of your life as the past and the present. It always bothered me when I watch plays in which the current moment is current. That moment today continues tomorrow and the day after tomorrow because reality changes so quickly that the theater cannot run that race with reality, the theater is not a hippodrome. If you run that race with reality, you miss out on much more important things. For example, a play is supposed to be very topical, and then you realize that it is not topical because it misses the essential issues of life.

What are the essential life questions?

We know what they are, they haven't changed for thousands of years. These are questions of love, faith, freedom. Theater has been telling essential stories for two thousand years. All great writers tell essential stories. Why do we play Chekhov, Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky, ancient writers? Because there are essential questions. It is not an essential question who is in power today and not tomorrow. Who cares?

It seems that this question is of interest to the largest number of citizens today.

First of all, this is not my audience, because these are not my questions. Whoever is interested in it, comes and enjoys it. No problems at all.

Your wife Amalija Bennett did the stage movement for the play "Green choja of Montenegro". How important is stage movement in this piece and is it important to have a well-known crew on each project?

We are a small team traveling around the world as a small team gypsy caravan. The third part of our team is my composer Dimitris Kamaratos and the three of us thus travel and work all over the world. Sometimes a stage designer or costume designer joins us, but we are a permanent part of the team. Dimitros could not come now because of other commitments. Just as you sometimes get used to some actors, you also get used to collaborators with whom you have the impression that you can work via Zoom or whatever, wherever we are on the planet. That alchemy works in a way that you can only be happy to have met these people. My theater and some internal content changed a lot thanks to them. Speaking of stage movement, it has a huge space in my plays because I consider theater to be movement. If film is a picture, if literature is a word - theater is a movement. When I see people sitting and talking like that in the theater, I have the impression that it is a radio drama. Amalija is someone who thinks from the movement because she is a trained player. As Dimitris hears sound in everything. They are unusual and valuable collaborators because they bring a completely new and unusual experience in addition to the fact that they are endlessly talented.

Do we in this area have at least similar methods in creating a play as is the case in the world?

I'll give you an example. If Dimitris were here now, he would go around, record sounds, crickets, ask the actors to speak to him in the Montenegrin language in order to catch the language. Then he would come up with some exercises to catch the tone, these bells... The totality of the space. He is not only the man who brings you the music at the premiere, he is there from the first day, when I go with the actors to read the text. And there it is until the premiere. That kind of work is something that has never existed here, we have never established it. As, unfortunately, we do not have a lighting designer who is an institution. He is often signed before the scenographer because he also follows the process from the first rehearsal to the last. I don't want this to come across as if all is well in the world and it's not here. I feel very ungrateful when I talk about it. But these are not so difficult things that they become part of our theatrical reality and aesthetics. The problem is that people don't have time and don't want to change some things they are used to. There you cannot work on several projects at once, but you are in one from start to finish and are part of the author team. These are small but important differences, which is why I avoided all these years because you quickly understand where you have better conditions to work.

You haven't been to Grad Teatr for twenty years, and your name is still associated with this festival even though a long period of time has passed. What does that tell you and how much does it mean to you?

That's an interesting statement, it all goes by very quickly. I wonder and wonder how twenty years have passed so quickly, but it is so typical, rushing through time. The fact is that for a time I was called the director of the Grad Theater, and I am also the winner of the festival award. Some, for me personally, really significant plays were created there. Some people who haven't even seen the plays "Banović Strahinja" or "Karolina Neuber" know about the plays, and that's interesting to me. In the theater, a lot depends on who is leading it at a certain moment, because that implies various things. Let's not lie, some are rooting for you, and others would pull your sleeve back if they could. And time is running out. Now Milena Lubarda-Marojević appeared who, in the early years of Grad Teatr, did an interview with me, then she was a young journalist. I have to admit now, not because of her, but because of that impression for the short time we worked together on "Choja", she reminded me with a little energy of those days and that time. I have the impression that she is trying and is well on her way to restoring the kind of importance that the Grad Theater once had and I will be happy if I can help her on that path with this play. Grad Teatar was our most prestigious festival, working for Grad Teatar was a matter of prestige.

Is it still a matter of prestige to be at the Grad Theater?

At one point I noticed that it was lost. It's ungrateful for me to talk about it because I'm not here, I don't follow everything, I catch it occasionally when I come, just by the way. But by the way, I realized that the impression of the actors playing, my colleagues above all, was no longer the same as it was in previous years. They told me that they had to stop some performances because of the noise, that there were huge crowds. Let's not forget the Citadel, which was the Globe Theater for us, it was a space where some incredible things were born. We have different opinions on various things, but we all agree on one thing. The most important thing is what kind of performance it is and what impression it made on the audience. In this sense, I think that for a director there is nothing more important, more beautiful and more valuable than having his plays remembered somewhere. Now you come to some environment and they tell you how they remember a certain play twenty years later. I met a friend here, I haven't seen him in exactly twenty years. He told me that his favorite scene in his life is in the play "Ivanov" in which Pera Kralj brings some gypsies to the estate and tells me that he will remember it as long as he lives. Those things are the only important things in a director's biography. And if it happens somewhere in various countries and theaters, you have the impression that the twenty years that have passed were not in vain.

Can we expect you more often in Budva after this premiere?

I don't know, it all depends on the conversation and agreement. There are indications that we can continue this cooperation very soon. However, we have some plans that were postponed due to the corona and now we have one show in Sweden, another in Slovenia, so we are returning to Athens because we have prolonged it all. There is now a moment when we may all meet here together again. We started talking about it, and that's the most important thing.

The audience wanted you, do you know that there was great enthusiasm when they heard that you were directing the new play of Grad Teatr?

That is my favorite of all, it is the greatest reward. I spent those twenty years in Athens, but I also have the impression that the Athens summer festival has become for me what Budva used to be. When twelve thousand people come to that Epidaurus to see your play, then you realize that you have done something in your life related to the theater.

The need that has kept the theater alive for more than two thousand years

What has this current time of pandemic brought to the theater and how is the theater fighting?

Something happened. We were a little afraid that all the fear that had accumulated would bring the audience back to the theater. It turns out we misjudged again. Again, there is some essential connection between the audience and the theater, ie. of what is on the stage in terms of a man's need to watch some stories that have to do with his life in some way. When you watch something on stage, you try to recognize and find a part of yourself, your personality, your curiosity, your courage or cowardice, you project something of yourself on stage. That need is what has kept the theater alive for two thousand years.

In the midst of the Greek economic crisis, he made the audience laugh at the ancient theater of Epidaurus

In recent years, you have also created in the ancient ancient theater of Epidaurus, which is over two thousand years old, and you are the first Serbian director to present himself there. What was that experience like for you?

I did the play "Pluto" there for various reasons, but among other things, money. The story is very simple and ingenious. Aristophanes asks a question, makes a little joke like a master comedian and says that there is something wrong with the way Pluto distributes money in the world, it must be that he is blind. Then he made that character blind and Pluto appears on the scene completely blind and it's clear to people that he's screwing up because he's blind. Then they decide to restore his sight, to start sharing properly and then things get worse and you see that he is a manipulator. It is a story two thousand years old, and for all time. We did it in the midst of the Greek economic crisis and the audience laughed and applauded, and laughter is often a powerful weapon.

Especially when they think after laughing?

Of course, I had really wonderful impressions, comments, meetings with the audience and reviews. One of such big topics is this story "Green Choja of Montenegro" where you have two religions, two rival sides, but between them there is a friendship that overcomes all that. You have a man who wanted to change something here, and such people are not always welcome here. The pain is all alive. It's interesting for the theater as well, and it's also interesting in life.