Playing the play "The Godfathers" Dusan Kovačević, directed by Bozidar Đurović, last night the drama program of the XXXVIII Grad Teatar festival continued on the stage between the churches. The play "The Godfathers" is a production of the Nikšić Theater, and it was made on the occasion of the 140th anniversary of the first theater performance in Nikšić and was premiered on February 16 this year, on Nikšić Theater Day.
Director Đurović, after the performance in Budva, said that he was very lucky and happy to have worked on a large number of Dušan Kovačević's plays.
"We see the world in a similar way. This world we live in, and there is no better one because we live in it, has a lot of tragic in it. And in that tragic, the most beautiful, most productive, most meaningful, in my opinion, is to speak through humor. Because if there is no humor , I'm afraid, neither would we. By the way, this text was intended for me when I was the director of the National Theater in Belgrade, but some other things came up, so I didn't do it then moment, before Dušan directed it in the Zvezdara theater. I was most interested in that story because true love, friendship and truth are indestructible. It is impossible to kill the truth, and we live in a world where the truth has been replaced by a post-truth or a lie "So we are living a lie and we will pay dearly for it, as they paid in this piece," said Đurović.
The scene between the churches, with its unique atmosphere, contributed to the special experience of the play. The natural scenography of the old walls and the open sky above the auditorium created the perfect background for the performance of "The Godfathers", and Đurović said that he wanted the church to function in the background.
"That part was interesting to me even during the rehearsal. I threw out the canvas because I wanted the church to function and gain a completely different meaning. I wanted all that thunder, all that comes from the sky to be primarily in the lighting of that church itself so that in the end that last image came to the fore, which, unfortunately, was not so powerful because it was small. "Church bells appeared in the show. It was not directed. So, someone directed it much better than we would have tried it," he said.
Actor Hadži Nenad Maričić said that it is a very unusual piece.
"I was lucky enough to talk to the writer, but after the work was done. He was very happy and it was a great satisfaction for me. This role requires a huge commitment to justify something that is very absurd. If it is played to the end and with full commitment, that's the only way to get the comedy, but also the drama in this play. It's a very unusual piece, the audience saw it, there are many messages in this piece. It talks about a new era that has come, shortage, unemployment, a lot people are on the street. In all of this, a person feels rejected, like a dog. On the other hand, we also have this metaphysical dimension, which is that God is all around us, that there is only one living world around us. we don't hear and we don't see. There are often many stories about when animals sensed something or saved our lives that way," he said.
In addition to the director Đurović, the author's team consists of Vesna Popović who signs the scenography, Marina Medenica i Margareta Marinković they did costume design, Jelena Simic stage movement, Bojan Bojanic was in charge of choosing the music, while he sang the numbers Pavle Bogojević.
In the play, in addition to Maričić, they also play Žana Gardašević Bulatović, Ivona Čović Jaćimović, Nikola Vasiljević i Pavle Bogojević.
At the very end of the performance of this play, in front of the ensemble, Gardašević Bulatović addressed the audience and said that the performance of the play "The Godfathers" was dedicated to the actor Stevan Radusinović, who died too soon, and asked the audience to reward him with the biggest possible applause, which he deserved.
A modern Balkan man in the trials of everyday life
Earlier, Kovačević wrote about the text "The Godfathers" that it is an unusual story about the friendship of a man who lost his job with a guy from a nearby park who also has no job.
"And that story begins normally, like all stories that will later become complicated and take on a completely different meaning. It is basically a thriller, and what I was interested in writing was the current economic and political situation in the country. But not told in the usual way, a political way, which has its durability and value only as long as that political situation lasts," Kovačević wrote.
The artistic director of the Nikšić Theater, Janko Jelić, wrote that the thematic foundation of this play is found in the everyday life of modern man in our Balkan region, where human life is tempted to intertwine with what our people call "dog life".
"That life, through the institutional marginalization of its bearers, appears at first as a chance for liberation from the shackles of the civilized affliction and delusion called modernity. However, in Kovačević's poetics, as well as in the universal dramatic craft, one delusion always gives birth to another delusion, and human life itself and love in him is the only thing worth sacrificing and fighting for, even through the barking of a dog and the existence of a stray dog," Jelić believes.
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