The theater performance "The Elephant Man" co-produced by the Belgrade Drama Theater and the Tivat Cultural Center, after its premiere in Belgrade on May 25, premiered on Wednesday evening in front of a Montenegrin audience, on the summer stage in Tivat, as part of the International Mediterranean Festival "Purgatory" theater.
Based on the text by Dimitrije Kokanov, the play was directed by Kokan Mladenović.
In addition to them, the author's team of this play consists of costume designer Aleksandra Pecić Mladenović, scenographer Marija Kalabić, composer Irena Popović Dragović, while Andreja Kulešević and Dejan Sredojević are responsible for stage movement and stage speech.
The play stars Ozren Grabarić, Mirjana Karanović, Jovo Maksić, Jana Milosavljević, Miloš Lazarov, Slađana Vlajović, Aleksandar Jovanović, Milan Kolak, Ivana Nikolić, Ivan Zablaćanski and Bojana Stojković.
"The Elephant Man", which is based on the real case of the British John Merrick from the second half of the 19th century, suffering from an extremely rare disease and deformity, who was known as the Elephant Man, explores different positions of social otherness, rejection, marginalization and condemnation of individuals. .
Merik's medical phenomenon is just a trigger for dealing with the topic of discrimination of various medical conditions by "healthy" society.
In all ways a person's appearance, origin, hormonal status, illness affect the position that person occupies in society and in what way society abuses those who differ from the normed majority - these are the topics treated in the latest play directed by Kokan Mladenović.
On the other hand, the play effectively, but also poignantly, talks about timeless human greed, envy and arrogance that even the most born do not shy away from towards the most born, as well as the sick need of society to live on everyday more or less fleeting scandals and topics that peek into someone's privacy .
The virtuoso Ozren Grabarić in the title role brilliantly played an extremely demanding role both dramaturgically and physically, arousing the audience's undisguised empathy towards the unfortunate fate of the character he portrays.
In addition, Grabarić managed to very convincingly show the whole internal struggle of the Elephant Man with himself through reconciliation and acceptance of himself as he is, i.e. through a persistent but unsuccessful search and effort to improve his inner beauty, goodness and spiritual and intellectual refinement. he renounces only in order to be as similar as possible to the merciless herd - the society that surrounds him and that exploitatively oppresses him and, in the end, physically destroys him.
"I think that this play has a lot of layers and some connection with the time we live in, with the society we live in, so that some new questions are constantly opening up for me even in the middle of the play itself in contact with the audience. Especially me as the protagonist who from the metaphysical space communicates with the audience, I felt that we made a connection, which is why it was so exciting to play," said Grabarić after the premiere.
The director, Kokan Mladenović, pointed out that they tried to tell a story through this play, how one man's illness is a litmus test to read the deviations in the society in which we live.
"It's a story about us today, about how much we've lost empathy, about declaring everything we don't understand as monstrous and terrible, whether it's physical deformities, sexual preferences, political attitudes, everything that doesn't fit into the valid norms of the establishment. is declared terrible and monstrous. On the other hand, some new freaks are served to us through reality shows through the conscious and systematic dumbing down of the societies we live in," Mladenović believes.
The director of the Tivat Culture Center, Goran Božović, was satisfied after the premiere, pointing out that this is the 35th production of the Culture Center and the third premiere in this year's edition of the "Purgatory" festival.
"This is our premiere collaboration with the Belgrade Drama Theater when it comes to production, and we are happy that we are recognized in the region as a serious, I can say, desirable theater company for cooperation. As a co-producer, I can be very satisfied with this show, which has a high artistic quality. I hope that it will achieve great success at the festival and that it will have a long and quality theatrical life," said Božović.
The director of the Belgrade Drama Theater, Jug Radivojević, pointed out that for the fifth year in a row, that theater insists on co-productions, on regional and international cooperation.
"And that gives really very significant results for both parties or for several parties, it depends on how many co-producers are involved. This is an agreement from more than a year and a half ago that Mr. Goran Božović and I agreed to make a joint project. We asked common theme, we looked for an author's team and came to the project 'Elephant Man' and Kokan Mladenović, who already has exceptional experience in this type of project. the Belgrade premiere on May 25 and tied five reruns at the end of the season. With this premiere in Tivat and tomorrow's rerun, we have brought one cycle to an end, which is the most important for the life of the play - how it will ring out, what kind of reaction there will be," said Radivojević.
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