The literary program of the XXXVIII Grad Teatar festival continued the night before last with the presentation of the collected works Ljubomir Đurković. The guests of the Poets' Square were writers, poets and editors Ilija Đurović i Brano Mandic, writer, journalist, visual artist and director of the publishing house "Zuta Kornjača", which published the collected works of Ljubomir Đurković in two volumes: "Collected Dramas" and "Poetry, Prose".
At the beginning of the evening, Mandić said that Đurković was the most important playwright that Montenegro had.
"First of all, he was a man who marked decades of something that we could call our cultural scene, something that we hope to create and try to raise, even when we don't succeed," said Mandić, and Đurović added that Đurković was a man who was inevitable for a whole generation of people who were interested in writing.
"Meeting a man in the city who is so intensely present and who is in some way open to new people and new acquaintances, and on the other hand, it was an opportunity to really meet someone who in a great way does what, in my case , the young author is interested. For me, that was the poetry and plays of Ljubomir Đurković at the same time. One of them was already being renewed in the theater at the time, it is the drama 'Waste' directed by the director Nika Goršič, I was also lucky enough to meet the man who wrote that play, which I watched by chance, through which I fell in love with the theater and through which I understood Ljubomir Đurković's influence not only on the dramatic form, but also on the stage language that we have in Montenegro, it was always that one problematic, very rigid, somewhat non-existent thing," he said.
Đurović added that what is exciting about Đurković and what he fell in love with when meeting him, is his unpretentious attitude towards his own work.
"Which, of course, does not mean lack of interest in work, but still in a specific way he did not take himself too seriously, the way some people do and then make caricatures of themselves," he said.
Ljubomir Đurković's early poems were a touch of modernism that came a little late in Montenegrin poetry, Đurović said.
"However, when this modernism appeared, there were several poets who knew what to do with it, and Ljubomir was definitely one of them. So, if those first two collections had that strong modernist influence, the new songs that were published in combination with the selected songs also brought a postmodernist wave. In a way, Ljubomir Đurković reappeared with poetry that was able to intrigue both young poets and a new audience. Also, at first glance, it exuded an allegedly frivolous approach to the song and the form itself, while actually inside, which is one of the greatest qualities of Ljubomir Đurković's poetry, was always a very well-crafted meter, rhythm and form of the song, which proved that in in question, a poet who has experience in different poetic forms, translation and classical poetry", he stated.
Mandić also pointed out that they made an effort to make the collected works available in bookstores.
"We are talking about a writer who must be visible in Montenegrin literature. There is this myth that Ljubomir Đurković wrote as little as he needed, because we with less than ten books of collected works are not considered writers", he said, and Đurović added that he is a writer who masters his form and his language in a virtuoso way. level.
"In his texts, whether they are dramas or poetry, things work perfectly inside. The drama "Waste" is an example of a staged scene from word to word and it functioned without any dramaturgical problems, which means that it is a playwright who also knew that craft, dramaturgical part flawlessly. Also, poetry is written in this way with great care, with an incredible feeling for the rhythm and meter of the poem. This means that we are talking about a writer who spent a lot of time on his text and for whom it was important that it be completed in that way. We have a book of collected plays that has over 600 pages and contains 10 plays. We have a book that shows that this is a writer who worked intensively, who built his texts in great detail and devoted as much time to them as was necessary to be satisfied with the text," he said.
Mandić and Đurović said that this was the first festival presentation of the collected works of Ljubomir Đurković.
The drama intended for Budva's Old Town is waiting to be staged
Đurović especially highlighted the play "Kjara Zorzi" on Poets' Square, which closes the book of collected plays.
"It is especially important for me to mention it in this place, because it was written for the Budva scene, for Budva's Old Town, for the potential that this space holds for playing with historical motifs, meta-historical motifs. We are talking about an opus in which we have a treatment of ancient myths, and a treatment of national and local myths and a pseudo-historical drama, as it is signed in the subtitle, which is the drama "Kjara Zorzi". Ljubomir is connected with the Grad Theater because there is a drama that was basically written as a production or co-production idea and it is a great drama. If it is ever staged, I think it will be an incredibly important theatrical moment for Montenegro."
Bonus video:
