Famous Slovenian director Vito Taufer, whose "early works" are classified as part of the best history of the former Yugoslav theater, in the 80s and 90s he pushed the aesthetic and formal boundaries of the theater... In his plays, he introduced research into different forms, approaches and genres, from radical naturalism to the poetics of visual, abstract, stylized theatrical language.
Taufer later engaged in more or less radical reinterpretations of classical dramatic material, from antiquity to the drama of the absurd, as well as texts by contemporary authors, which still makes him one of the most prominent and exciting artists in the region. He has directed more than a hundred dramatic plays, several operas, the full-length feature film "Life", deals with scenography, costumes, stage music, his works are performed at European and world theater festivals, and is a laureate of the most important awards, including the Sterijine, Borštnikov and Prešeren awards, several laurel wreaths from the Sarajevo MESS..., and the Bitef Special Award in 1996 for the play "Silence Silence Silence".
For this year's edition of the Grad Theater festival, Vito Taufer directed the play "Radovan III" in a co-production between the Grad Theater and the National Theater from Sombor, according to the text Dusan Kovačević. The performance attracted a lot of attention from the public, as well as the audience, because during all four performances on the stage between the churches, more tickets were requested.
At the premiere of the play on August 14, writer Dušan Kovačević was in the front row. Did you talk to him after the premiere?
We did, I was really interested in what he thought after he saw the show and was satisfied. He said, and I repeat the same, as if the work was written for today. That's a nice compliment from the author. With Kovačević, we didn't go into big analyzes and I'm not the kind of person who goes into analyzes after a play. When I watch a play, I try to open myself up to impressions, I don't approach it analytically. I do such shows, I don't make them for people who watch analytically, but for those who come to experience something, to feel that something is happening in them. And not to solve puzzles.
At the press conference, you talked about how the text itself is more tragic, but the play still brought a lot of smiles during the performance. How do you comment on that?
There is no tragedy without comedy and vice versa. Some theoreticians and analysts get angry when I say that, but I think it would be good if the theater was also entertaining, to attract us in that sense. That's what I mean when I say entertaining, to draw us into its action and happenings. I don't expect anything from the audience, everyone should experience the show for themselves. It's like reading poetry, there are no rules. None of the songs have instructions for use and understanding. That's the point, that everyone experiences the thing on some intimate level. That's important to me and I think it's much more important and productive for us to laugh at ourselves than for actors on stage to teach us or tell us what to think. The theater stage is not a pulpit, it is not a place for preaching. They are different things, different genres. It is important to me, especially at this time when the theater, at least in our country, and I think that is the general situation, has to deal with all these media, the Internet, television and movies. With everything that keeps us at home, that keeps us passive. Still, you should come, you should socialize, you should sit next to some people you don't know, indulge yourself in the event and the adventure because it is an adventure, and that adventure must be interesting. It's important to me that the adventure is as interesting as possible for the audience, because I'm not doing it for professors. I also love when those professors forget about themselves and indulge in some experience, immersing themselves in some other destiny in which they recognize themselves. It's a tragedy because the content is really tragic. This does not mean that we need to tell it with tragic thoughts. When I was working on "Oedipus" in Serbia, I told the actors at the first rehearsal that there is humor because there is. Sophocles is terribly funny. It's always easier for us to understand things when we can distance ourselves a bit and laugh at ourselves, it's a kind of catharsis that is actually the only form of catharsis in the theater that I still believe in today. I am not sure that today in the theater and even in the film, tragedy is possible as a tragedy in the sense of tragic catharsis.
The text was written 50 years ago, but it is still very relevant and after so many years we are still laughing. Could we have learned something in all that time?
I think we are learning, and who will know. I first wanted to surprise the audience with the seriousness of the approach and the rough realism with which Radovan and Rumenka begin the battle with mosquitoes, and the next thing is to draw people into that story and that event. Of course, Dušan Kovačević articulates all things through terribly witty formulations. Of course we have to laugh because it's funny, but it's a small step from comic to tragic and vice versa. I like to walk along that narrow edge because it gives a certain amount of tension and forces me to make some decisions, to commit myself. Not through analysis but through emotion.
The analysis still has to happen because Radovan kills mosquitoes at the beginning of the play, but at the same time beats his wife.
That's right, but let the analysis come later. After the experience. Let the images remain, let the feelings remain in the person to analyze them later and to remember them. And to analyze them competently, not as a request.
Why did you choose that particular text?
Because the text is phenomenal and I think that after those 50 years it is perhaps a clearer picture of today's world than it was then. It actually reminds me of that genre of the theater of the absurd, which I have been involved in a lot, but these are not some abstract metaphors, but a picture of the world as it is, as we experience it today. A portrait of the spiritual world, and of the concrete physical, human situation in general. That genre of absurd drama is somehow my favorite, Jarry, Beckett, Ionesco, Pinter, our Filipcic. Of course, Dusan Jovanovic, and certainly Dušan Kovačević.
Immediately after the premiere, you said in a statement to the media that we are getting closer to the cataclysm and the apocalypse. Can you explain to us exactly what you meant?
I think I expressed myself a little clumsily even in my enthusiasm because Serbian is still a foreign language to me. I wanted to say that we feel as if cataclysms and disasters are coming. Which is because of better and better information, but also because of the extreme situation in the whole world, whether it is about extreme natural or social phenomena. There is a lot of destruction and aggression. I wanted to say that we bring that feeling that we are really approaching some apocalypses and cataclysms. I wouldn't dare say that as a claim and I certainly hope it doesn't happen, I meant the feeling.
After the play "Oedipus" by JDP, you said that it was one of the most important plays for you personally. Is it still like that or has the play "Radovan III" taken that place?
My most important play is the one I'm doing right now. So it is currently "Radovan III". "Oedipus" is certainly one of my most significant plays. After all, the audience confirms it. I'm glad that the audience is coming because for a while I was dealing with a little more hermetic genres of theater. Later I realized that the door should be opened a little wider. Otherwise, all these buildings and institutions no longer have a function. In ancient Greece, several thousand people could fit in Epidaurus, and now we are happy if we fill a hall of 100 people. I mean that catharsis, that feeling of event and excitement with an event, the ecstasy of shared experience and energy brought by the audience. That is why Budva and the City Theater are such a significant thing. I'm working to get back to those social events in the broadest sense. That not only experts and analysts come, but a wider audience.
What is your favorite audience?
Young audience, high school students who can be very critical, but at the same time are sincere and spontaneous. If we attract them, then what we are doing still makes sense, as long as we don't use cheap forums and moves. A dilemma often arises here, the question of what if we are commercial and enter the capital game. It's hypocritical.
What are you currently working on? Will we see you again in Montenegro?
I work in Gaveli tekst Mate Matisic who for me, not only in the region but also in the world, is a top writer, playwright and screenwriter. Similar to Dušan Kovačević. There are a lot of similarities there. We have a premiere on November 11. It's about his new drama, although actually it's not even new anymore because we were supposed to do it before covid, so we stopped and only now have we managed to finish it. The Gavela was destroyed as a result of the earthquake, so after a long time we are opening it again in November. As for Montenegro, I will soon be coming to the Montenegrin National Theater where I will perform the latest text by Mate Matišić.
The theater city is fighting the Goliaths of today
How satisfied are you with the cooperation with Grado Teatra, considering that almost three decades have passed since your last appearance at this festival?
I am very satisfied with the City Theater, the concept and the people I met there. They are really trying, but I am afraid that they are fighting with these Goliaths of today who hold all the power in their hands and have no culture and value. They forgot about all the basic values.
What advice would you give them?
I have no advice because I don't know the situation well enough, but if the City is already a theater then the city should live with it. If it is no longer the Grad Theater, then perhaps another concept should be devised. I don't know the proposal because I don't do that business. It's really a huge job and kudos to them for fighting to make something happen. Although the actor lost his voice here because of the noise of the crazy capitalist fair we are in.
What should people watch if not virtuosity, from the music to the actors
So far, you have collaborated several times with the musicians Manjifika and Shatz, who also composed the music for "Radovan III". How do you comment on that collaboration and what did they bring to the theater through your plays?
Manjifiko knows that it should be done for the widest audience, and at the same time it produces the highest quality material. We are here on the same mission and the same practice, that's why we work so well together, and we will continue our cooperation in the future. The first time we worked was 10 or 15 years ago. I often collaborate with his brother Shatz, certainly most of the plays I've done in the last couple of years I've done with him. He is a very important element of that tandem. They are phenomenal musicians, top notch. Their team is also a team of top musicians, many are virtuosos, and that's important to me, that moment of virtuosity. What should people watch if not virtuosity, from the music to the actors. That's what we come to see and listen to.
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