About the search for a lost life, which never happened

The play "The Use of Man", based on the novel by Aleksandar Tišma and directed by Boris Liješević, premiered on Sunday evening on the stage between the churches in the Old Town.

Accompanied by a standing ovation lasting several minutes, the play is a co-production of JU "Grad teatra" Budva, New Fortress Theater, Novi Sad Theater/Újvidéki Színház and East West Center from Sarajevo.

The Budva premiere of the play "The Use of Man" was realized in cooperation with the Tourist Organization of Budva.

After there was the consent of the Institute for Public Health - to finally start holding artistic programs in the open air, "Grad Teatar" planned to show one of the two premieres that were planned for the 34th festival.

The performance "The Use of Man" lasts for two hours, during which, as stated in the accompanying material, it talks about a world dominated by religious, racial, political and any other intolerance. Madness is spreading, and people hope that it will not reach the peaceful Novi Sad and that Europe and the world will not allow the spread of Nazism and do nothing, even though everything tells them that they should run away and save themselves. They are sure that reason always prevails in the end. The main character Vera Kroner, a girl from a rich merchant Jewish family, is deported to Auschwitz in 1943, along with her and other Jewish families. Vera is the only one who survives, because she spends her time in the camp in the "house of joy", a brothel where sexual services provided to SS soldiers prolong their lives and delay their journey to the crematorium.

The question the play deals with is - should you survive when your whole world falls apart and disappears. Isn't it better, more honorable and smarter to disappear with him? Is it necessary to fight for life if traumas and images of the worst horrors follow after that, which return and do not give peace. Is there more peace, home then? (...) What is a man and what is in him was the main question during the work on this play. Man is changed by circumstances. It adapts. He becomes what the time asks of him. This is the story of the search for a lost life, which never happened.

"Alexander Tišma's novel - and our play - begins with a notebook in which poetry is written. In the end, after Auschwitz, that very notebook that connected times, people, children, somehow that notebook that is the main hero of this play and on which poetry is written, in golden letters, burns," said Liješević after the play.

According to him, the absurdity of all times is that the one who won the war and who returned from the war, returned with a trauma from which he can no longer come out.

"In a way, this is a story about that trauma, a trauma that becomes our home and on which a person becomes dependent. Then the question arises, who is the heroine of this play anyway, whether she should have returned and whether it makes sense to survive, when your whole world disappears", said Liješević.

The Director of the Public Institution "Grad Teatar" Milena Lubarda Marojević stated that the play with which the "Grad Teatar" festival was supposed to open this year was the festival co-production "The Use of Man" based on the famous novel by Aleksandar Tišma and directed by Boris Liješević.

"It premiered in Sarajevo in December 2019, then in January in Novi Sad, and on September 4 at the Novi Tvrđava theater festival in Čortanovci on September 4. Of all the programs we originally planned for this summer, we decided to perform this one , for several reasons. First, we need to return to the great cultural events, the exchange of artists and the great works. For a long time, the 34th festival was envisioned from the beginning under the theme of 'Clash of man and history', with which this play corresponds the most. This topic turned out to be prophetic, because in the meantime, from the beginning of 2020 until today, major historical circumstances have occurred in this area, a pandemic, an economic crisis, political repression, and finally a historic change of government. Thoughts about an individual who is buffeted by historical misfortunes, about suffering without fault, about the revolution and the behavior of people after it, are eternal thoughts, but especially relevant today. This project also means another cooperation between the countries of the region of the former Yugoslavia, which is and will remain a practice that we managed to preserve during all the years of the festival's existence", emphasized Lubarda Marojević.

The play features: Emina Elor, Draginja Voganjac, Jugoslav Krajnov, Dušan Vukašinović, Ognjen Nikola Radulović, Aljoša Đidić and Ognjen Petković. The dramatization of the novel was done by Boris Liješević and Fedor Šili, the dramaturgy by Fedor Šili, the music for the play was composed by Stefan Ćirić, the costumes were designed by Marina Sremac, and the scenography by Željko Piškorić.

The performance is realized within the framework of the joint regional program "Dialogue for the Future", which is run by UNESCO, UNICEF and UNDP in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia. The XXXIV edition of the "Grad Theater" festival will be supported by the Ministry of Culture of Montenegro.

Liješević: It was, it didn't happen again, there's no need to look back

After the legitimately elected government was replaced in Budva in June by the use of police force, Liješević resigned from membership in the Council of JU "Grad tetatar".

Asked to comment on the events of the past two and a half months in Budva, he said:

"It was over and it didn't happen again, and let's not look back on those things," Liješević said.

Liješević then stated in a letter to the President of the Council, Predrag Zenović, that he was resigning from membership in that body. He expressed his revolt with the occupation of Budva by parastatal and parapolice elements, and, as he emphasized, under the control and permission of state authorities, as well as the Government of Montenegro.

"I strongly support the citizens of Budva and their and our struggle for freedom, dignity, for the will to vote, for the rule of law, and finally for respect for the Constitution of Montenegro, as well as for Montenegro itself, which my uncles and grandfathers defended from Italian fascists in the Second world war, but also many more times throughout history", Liješević wrote and emphasized that today we are witnessing a modern quasi-democratic occupation, although, he noted, it already seemed that this way of dealing belonged to the past.

"I despise the occupying power in Budva with all my being and I will always fight against those dishonorable people whose actions and their children will one day be ashamed, against those cowards who hide behind the force of batons, persecution, arrests".