"I am very satisfied with the premiere performance. The actors played with all their heart, unburdened, without the restraint that is usually present at a premiere. I didn't feel that here. I felt that they were playing and I think they raised the bar and transferred that energy to the audience. I would say from the audience's reaction that we were quite successful. I would like the audience to recognize themselves in this play or someone close to them and to perhaps remember some of the wisdom from the last monologue, which Anja uttered at the end of the play," said the director. Goran Damjanac after the premiere of the Nikšić Theater's play "Violin, Drums and Iron" on Monday evening.
Actress Anja Drljević At the end of the play, in the monologue that Damjanac mentions, he asks, among other things, the question of whether cheap happiness or magnificent suffering is better.
"We artists always choose that magnificent suffering, somehow we are more comfortable there, and that cheap happiness is a perishable commodity," said the director of the play based on the text. Nikolaj Kolyada.
Drljević is of the same opinion: "Always after that cheap happiness, that sublime suffering awaits us."
The play brings a comical encounter of cultures, a clash of vanities and a conflict of different classes. Two families, Montenegrin and Russian, two mothers and two views on life, all of which are connected by a universal story about marriage, where, as always, love wins.
The roles in the play are played by: Zana Gardasevic Bulatovic, Ana Franic, Anja Drljevic, Matija Memedovic, Boban Cvorovic i Belizar Kasalica.
"I always like to say that I am an actress of tragedy. Sometimes it is even easier for me to cry than to laugh. I think that there is no comedy without tragedy and that things in general should not be taken too seriously, because life is short and passes quickly. But life is not a farce either. There is always everything in between. I think that the inner world of a person is very often neglected. In that last scene, I realize that I am alone. My mother has gone to have fun, my husband is having fun, they are all having fun. The playwright Jelena said it beautifully - the world is left to the young. The young woman I play is that new generation whose husband will probably not be away from home," said Drljević.
According to Žana Gardašević Bulatović, previews in front of an audience, especially when it comes to comedies, are essential. For them, the preview was the premiere, which is why she is delighted that the actors and the audience breathed together.
"The audience understood things, I would say they liked it and we are under a positive impression. There was good energy both on stage and in the audience, and this was the best acting out of all the rehearsals, and that doesn't usually happen at premieres. That's why I don't like them because we are always a little tense and in some kind of anticipation, and this wasn't the case. Somehow the audience immediately gave us encouragement and the wind at our backs, so we got into the game," said Gardašević Bulatović after the premiere.
As she pointed out, she had wanted to act in a comedy for a long time, and now that wish has come true. And not just that wish.
"There was a long period when I was constantly playing tragedies, some difficult stories, and I wished for some comedy in myself. I have that gift, it was recognized at the Academy, and such roles were never imposed on me, and here it is now. I really accepted it with all my heart. And other wishes came true: to awaken the Montenegrin language a little, our expressions, to bring them back into use a little, and here is the opportunity to revive it a little through my mother from Nikšić. And that gave me joy in acting and in building the character," the actress said with a smile.
Her "Russian friend" on stage, the bride's mother, actress Ana Franić, pointed out that Koljada "likes to play with her text" which to a greater or lesser extent ends up in rehearsals, so they, in addition to the cultural and civilizational conflict, decided that instead of two Russian families, one would be Montenegrin, which, as she said, was even more interesting, while Žana Gardašević Bulatović had the desire and need to "pull archaisms out of the Montenegrin language and play with it a little."
"I'm glad if the audience recognizes something and likes it, because then it's nice for us too. The audience usually likes what they recognize. It's never something that necessarily proves that something is good, but they did react to places that were recognizable to them. There were moments that were even touching and that's nice. A play has its own life and from my many years of experience, it almost never depends on the premiere. The most beautiful thing for every actor is that the play lives on, and we always feel somewhat empty after the premiere. We give birth to something and then someone takes it away from us," said Ana Franić.
As she pointed out, the play also points to the specific character of a mother who will "always swallow everything for the sake of her child's happiness."
"The mother will argue in vain, and then she will reconcile so that the children will be well. Mothers somehow always suffer for their children, and that, on the one hand, was funny, on the other hand, it was beautiful and touching. As mothers, it was interesting for us because we recognized it in the process and then we could make the audience recognize it too. But, you always have two sides of the coin - we as parents always want the best for our children, and the question is whether that is necessarily their happiness. Probably most often it is not. There is also that generation gap here. The play opens up many topics. Today's generation of these young people is also called the unhappy generation of happy images. They are endlessly empty. They feel unhappy and oppressed, and when you look at it realistically, they have much more than we used to have. Whether they essentially have much more or much less is another story," Franić emphasized.
Koljada's text was translated by Novica Antić, the dramaturgy is by Jelena Paligorić Sinkević, the costume design is by Marija Tavčar, the set design is by Vesna Sušić, the vocal technique is by Milica Damjanac, and the language adaptation and music selection is by Kolektiv. The sound design and editing was done by Bojan Bojanić, the lighting design by Vesna Sušić and Bojan Bojanić.
Bonus video:
