On the stage of the Royal Theater Zetski dom, the play "Butterfly" premiered on Tuesday evening and was rewarded with a standing ovation from the audience. The piece with the subtitle "Birth Practice" was directed by Andraš Urban, one of the most recognized directors, winner of the most important awards in the region and Europe. Ana Vujošević, Srđan Grahovac and Dejan Ivanić play in the play based on the text of Aleksandar Radunović. The playwright of the play is Rajko Radulović, the music is written by the lyricist Aleksandar Radunović.
The Montenegrin author unusually appreciates the work of Andraš Urban, who is known for his specific theatrical expression and vision of stage play. Precisely for this reason, he believes that the text is a template for the director's vision and that he must have complete freedom.
"As much as I appreciate what Andraš Urban does, the fact that he will direct the piece based on my text made me happy, and from the beginning of the process I was sure that the only right way was to give him complete freedom when it comes to the text and interventions on it," he said. Aleksandar Radunović.
Nevertheless, Andraš Urban says that "Butterfly" is such a drama that every word of it is spoken in the play, and that the only striking scene with the fiddle at the end of the piece was added by dramaturgical intervention. The director himself once again confirmed his unconventional theatrical expression, especially in the introductory part that clarifies the relationships and articulates the subconscious of the characters. Urban is satisfied with his actors and the first director in Montenegro.
"This is the first time I'm working in Montenegro, it's important to me because in the last two years I've been through all the former republics and now I'm completing that circle. I really like this play, it's actually a good theater, I'm glad I worked in Cetinje", says the director of the play "Butterfly".
"We have learned to live aware of our immorality and live as if everything is fine. We even live in such a time as if it is welcome, that kind of hypocritical morality, saying one thing and living another, even society, public life, has become so shameless that you don't have to pretend, you can say everything publicly, unfortunately. As far as 'Butterfly' is concerned, I'm glad, without political slogans and clearly articulated social issues, we presented a story that takes place within a family, human intimacy, at every moment it has its own echo, its own meaning in the social context and sure that the play works like that, that everything is always clear", says Andraš Urban.
This honest story about a family has Montenegrin specifics, but the family, with its blood ties, passions, love and flaws, is the same everywhere in the world, wherever it is. Therefore, the text by Aleksandar Radunović, and the play directed by Urbana, is a piece that can be played and understood anywhere in the world.
"'Butterfly' is a story about the illusion that a person should be free in his own skin, that we are promised something that somehow always slips out of our hands, so, faced with that fact, a person feels trapped next to the partner he lives with, in the family to which he belongs, in the work he does and, finally, in his skin which is too tight. I wanted to talk about the hypocrisy and lies in which we suffocate by living a life that, I think most people think, is in every sense far from what we deserve, and because of this we end up turning into embittered wrecks that lie around us only hatred, apathy and chronic dissatisfaction with everything that surrounds us, and as time goes on we become unable to recognize beauty in anything. This hyperbolized image of a modern Montenegrin can be the image of any man on the planet who lives in the era of this variant of liberal capitalism, and that is why it is unusually important that the director comes from a different background, because it seems to me that this very fact can contribute to the piece's penetration and speak in a way different from the way I imagined him, while the essence remains the same", said the lyricist Aleksandar Radunović.
The audience rewarded the first "Butterfly" flight with a standing ovation, inviting the actors, director and lyricist to return to the stage. A brutally honest piece about a fierce reckoning with oneself, it did not leave anyone indifferent.
The reprise of the play "Butterfly" will be performed on April 29.
Deconstruction of tragedy in the style of Urban
"I think that Aleksandar Radunović was lucky to find an exceptional collaborator in the great Andraš Urban and that the result is great, that this is an exceptional performance that completely deconstructs a tragedy in Andras's style that I experienced as a techno tragedy. Finally, in this performance, I heard and saw fiddles in a way that I have long wished for, and that is their deconstruction, all that is abuse and the so-called. fiddler culture, especially in the tragedy of the nineties and the breakdown of the family. All three actors are great, and offered a good deconstruction that is healthy for society. The show deserves to have a good life. Andraš is a European director, a director in the full sense of the word," said production professor Janko Ljumović after the premiere.
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