The winter season at the Zetski Dom Royal Theater continues with the premiere of the play "Son", directed by Montenegrin director Mirko Radonjić based on the text of Mirjana Medojević. This piece does not deal with the subject of war, but with what remains in people after it. Although it was not held on the territory of Montenegro, many Montenegrins participated in it in neighboring countries. As a reminder of those times, some have wounds on their bodies, some on their souls, some both. Dimitrije, played by Srđan Grahovac in the play, is just such a man. Senad, who is his son conceived in the violence of war hell in Sarajevo, comes to Dimitrije's home on Christmas Eve. That son wants revenge for the pain in which he was conceived and raised, thus continuing the sin started in the previous generation. The director, Mirko Radonjić, is himself part of the generation that grew up in that era, and is now mature enough to understand the denial that that time happened, not so long ago. With his team, in the process he searched for the best way to open, really open, key topics.
"Without revising our history, I don't think in the spirit of national pride that we revise it, but really as an encounter with our responsibility and our guilt, I think that we cannot progress as a society. This can absolutely be seen through the various pores of social existence, through the various divisions that exist today. We tried not to read what is written in the text as any kind of pamphlet, but in the sense of the human condition and human destinies, and where they can lead. Only when we face the fact that our fathers went to wars, and there is information that 35 thousand people from Montenegro went as volunteers to BiH and Croatia, only when we face that, then we will be able to know what our attitudes are before let's jump into European boots. The question of guilt opens up. We did not stage a tragedy, but it is that ancient model of responsibility and guilt, which begins to haunt other generations," said the director of the play.
After a month and a half of work, the play will premiere tonight. Mirjana Medojević participated in the process, who also signed the play's dramaturgy. The team of two young artists who joined the project with Montenegrin actors dedicatedly opened topics to complete the story, wondering in the process if it is even possible to stop the circle of hell and hatred. Together, they created a noteworthy story about the fate of a war veteran and his children. That story "is not the story of one man. Not a single story has ever been that," says writer Mirjana Medojević.
"The son is sanctified in the most brutal way possible through his relationship with his daughter, his half-sister, and in the end we come to the son's guilty conscience. Basically, it's other people's sins paid for by two young people, who simultaneously make their own mistakes along the way. I don't think that the text is finished, when I found out that Mirko will do this play, we entered a new hand of the text, because I realized that he has a motive, that the play means something to him. I don't have that approach that a full stop is put on the text, I respect writers who do that, but for me that approach comes from the fact that I'm actually a director. I know how many lives can be opened on stage", said Medojević.
Dimitrije has a daughter Maja in the drama. A guy Senad from Sarajevo comes to visit Maja. In this time, all three are paying for sins committed more than 20 years ago. The character of Maja in the play is played by Marija Đurić.
"In this process, we collaborate nicely, we deal with the relationships of the characters in a piece that is well written. When you go in and engage with the character, things are very clear, it's written precisely, there's little room to wander, all you have to do is let yourself go. I think we have started good things, we can go even further, we are all infected by this text in a beautiful way, we dig with joy what it brings. The first time I read it, I had a completely different impression, and only later did other things start to emerge, which we did not see at first. And the process will continue as long as the play is played," said Đurić.
In the play "Son", in addition to Marija Đurić and Srđan Grahovac, Omar Bajramspahić also plays. The scenography and lighting design are signed by director Mirko Radonjić. Lina Leković is the costume designer and collaborator on the scenography, and the director's assistant is Marija Backović. The rerun of the play "Sin" is scheduled for Thursday.
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