Nikolay Kolyada, a world-renowned Russian playwright and theater director, in the play "Violins, Tambourines and Irons" he pitted two seemingly completely different Russian families and two different classes against each other: the proletarian and the bourgeois. Director Goran Damjanac In the play by the Nikšić Theater, which will premiere on April 28th at 20 p.m., he decided to have a Montenegrin and a Russian family, with all their contradictions, but also linguistic and mental differences.
The play “Violins, Drums and Iron” was performed in the region in 2022 at the Šabac Theater, and now in Nikšić Theater. According to Damjanac, he was looking for a location to stage the play, with its “charming text,” and he found it at the Nikšić Theater, in Nikšić, and in Montenegro.
"In addition to the class dimension of the conflict, we also introduced the civilizational, mental, cultural dimension of the conflict between the Russian and Montenegrin families. I was born, almost on the border, in Brčko, and I am a fan of Yugoslavia, that word that sounds 'terrible' today. My experience of Nikšić, the mentality and the language, was a new piquancy. The charm of that language, which belongs to Old Herzegovina, and playing with the language that was not just a mere translation, but also certain expressions characteristic of this locality, which Žana first of all brought to us, working on her character, and then the other Nikšić residents, was a sweet lesson for me about Montenegro and the mentality of this part of Montenegro. That localization and mental adaptation was a great pleasure for me," said Damjanac, adding with a smile that the phrase "angels with children" is his absolute favorite.
Although, as he reminded us, Russians use the phrase "violins, tambourines and irons" when they want to say that an orchestra sounds out of tune, in Kolyada's text, the term has multiple meanings - a combination of two different musical instruments that are associated with classical and folklore, and a household item that in a patriarchal society is most often attributed to women, but also a combination of two mentalities, two cultures.
"Kolyada is a loose writer who does not suffer from precision, but is free in expression, so he offers both the director and the actors freedom to interpret the text. The text is on the verge of farce. This is a story about unfulfilled desires, hopes, about how a person is ready to lie to himself and others in everyday life for the sake of the illusion of happiness. But this is also a story about strong, powerful women, humorously told with a touch of tragedy, drama in the modern sense. This is a story told from a female perspective: two mothers and a bride," said the director.
He also had to mention the hospitality of the employees of the Nikšić Theater, as well as the people of Nikšić.
"The atmosphere at the Nikšić Theater is what made me fall in love with theater as a high school student and stay there. The Nikšić Theater has a spirit that, unfortunately, is being lost in many other theaters in this modern era," Damjanac pointed out.
I Ana Franic, who plays the mother of the bride, had to praise the Nikšić Theater because, as she said, everything that is beautiful in the theater is there, while everything bad is missing. As for her role, she said that she and Žana Gardašević Bulatović, were directed at each other - point and counterpoint, and that they play women, two mothers, pillars of families who "hold the wedding on their backs", and who also brought about that social and civilizational conflict. As she emphasized, they played with each other while working on the play, and the audience will make the final judgment on their work process and play.
"I think the audience will love this play because the audience always connects to what they recognize as life. With Kolyada, nothing big ever happens, but life does happen. It's like you peek through the door and catch some segments of life, and the audience always laughs, or is touched when they recognize something from their lives," said Franić, adding that theater cannot last without interaction between actors and the audience.
The groom's mother, Žana Gardašević Bulatović, admitted that although she doesn't like the premiere, she can't wait for it to happen and for the audience to see how the actors and the writing team played together.
"We adapted the character of the mother and son to this climate, both linguistically and mentally, so that linguistic adaptation was the most joyful point of the work for me. I believe that the audience, as we wanted, will breathe with us through each character, but also each situation, because that is why we do this work," Gardašević Bulatović emphasized.
"In working on this play, I identified with the fact that every comedy has a flip side, to use Gogol's words, you will laugh at my harsh words. The play's poster itself and the symbol, that facelessness, indicate that the audience can breathe with us, to find themselves in our problems and conflicting sides. Every person builds themselves and chooses what they are looking for for the future, and the question is whether it is the right or wrong choice. Anja and I have presented that youthful spirit and the downfall of youth into which we have fallen in a strange way," he said. Matija Memedović, who plays the groom.
Artistic Director of the Nikšić Theatre, Janko Jelić, he said that this is the most cohesive ensemble that has ever performed a piece, and he expects that to be seen in the performance.
"It's a complex family story. We most often describe our lives in terms of routine, everyday life, and always the same cycle that repeats itself day after day. I would describe this play as the culmination of everyday life, energy, the culmination of two different cultures, identities, and mentalities, different ancestral heritages, different class stories. There will be a culmination that is on the verge of turning from comedy into farce, and from farce into tragedy, but love will solve this problem, as it always solves everything," said Jelić, wishing the play a long life.
The play stars: Žana Gardašević Bulatović, Ana Franić, Matija Memedović, Anja Drljević, Boban Čvorović and Velizar Kasalica. The dramaturgy is entrusted to Jelena Paligorić Sinkević, who was the playwright of the Šabac play. She was responsible for the set design Vesna Sušić, and for costumes Marija Tavcar.
This play is being staged for the first time in Montenegro, and it is the 36th drama title staged by the Nikšić Theater, or the ninth play in four years.
Kolyada is the author of 120 plays that have been translated into several world languages and performed from the USA to Australia. They premiered at his theater, which he founded in Yekaterinburg. As he wrote Jovan Cirilov, Kolyada is a representative of the "Iron Age of Russian dramatic literature", a creator who stands on the foundations of Russian realism, with a handful of pity and a handful of hope for his heroes.
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