"We are subjects. If not to politics, then to existence. Position. Own", wrote the director Andras Urban in the accompanying text with the play "MIRA", which was performed as part of the 17th International Festival of Actors in Nikšić.
The play is a tribute Miri Trailovic, director, longtime manager and one of the founders of "Atelier 212", "Bitef" and "Bitef Theater", a woman who was also the artistic director of the International Theater Festival in Nancy and winner of the French Legion of Honor.
But the play is not only about her. It is also for all those who are afraid "not to make waves", who cannot or will not recognize human evil and stupidity, about a society that does not need a "truly critical, creative individual" but a "subject", about the fact that "fear breeds hatred ” and that we tacitly accepted that “our diagnosis should be Alzheimer's”, because “the sick are not responsible”.
The performance is also in the theater, the one that accepted the rules of subjugation instead of art, where "the evil officials of dramatic literature become beloved icons", where "the army of working actors-technicians does not think to accept the risk on stage, to understand that they are responsible, to is the duty to get out of the comfort zone".
"I am aware that sometimes it is much more dangerous to touch the theater bazaar than the government or politics. It would be enough for the government to have a little sense of humor. But the bazaar does not forgive," Urban wrote.
And who forgives today in these areas? Maybe only Mira. But they do remember, and the goal is to erase the memory, to let that "blah, blah, blah", as the actresses powerfully express it on stage, be our speech, attitude, image of our reality - the one for which we ourselves are guilty.
In the play, for which the concept, direction and stage design was done by Andraš Urban, they play Mirjana Karanović, Isidora Simijonović, Andjela Jovanovic, Maja Lukić i Gorica Regodić. Music Irena Popović Dragović, and costumes Marina Sremac.
"We had the opportunity to see acting habits in concrete syncretism. This was total acting, with all elements of acting expression, acting body, speech, singing, dancing. We've seen it all. We are familiar with the manuscript of Andraš Urban, who was one of the most important contemporary directors in this region and beyond. The basic motif is the life and work of Mira Trailović, a famous theatrical miracle worker. I experienced that occasion more as a metaphor, as a symbol of a theatrical act, just like the appearance of our important actress Mirjana Karanović. It's all a metaphor for theater and life, here and now. I would call this one, above all, exciting theater that concerns us. If not longer, I would like the actresses to speak more," said the director Goran Bulajic, moderator of the round table after the play.
But the actresses, Mirjana Karanović to be precise, did not think so.
"We said ours. You should be speaking. Let's talk further, let's continue, I'd rather you say. It's always like that at those round tables after shows, at festivals. The actors come, perform the play and the crew sits down afterwards and continues to talk, continuing to explain what they did, how they did it. As if that matters now. I would like you to say what it means to you, if it means to you, that we hear something from you. We're not the only ones talking," said Karanović.
And those who attended the round table talked about how the actresses, as well as the director, showed how the theater should "touch us, call out and call us out", how the play is "an extraordinary image and opportunity, the face and the reverse of society in the Balkans". , how "experience teaches us that it means nothing to us", how the actresses on stage did not act but "played life", how shame disappeared and oblivion came, how things repeat themselves in these areas.
And then it was the turn of the actresses.
"After a long time, two days ago we played in Belgrade and we all somehow collectively agreed that this play is even more relevant today in this moment in which we live. Today I just realized that what we are saying at the end, this empty space and a crowded mass grave, actually sounds very morbid today, is the terrible truth in which we live. This play somehow passes the test of time and I'm afraid that it will be more and more relevant", said actress Anđela Jovanović.
Mirjana Karanović talked about Miri Trailović, who throughout her life "animated some powerful people to give money for the theater, so that the theater would be important", about intellectuals who "reasonably" explain why Bitef should not exist, about "the sloppy Goebbels program for culture ", about the "national socialism" we live and "our alleged vulnerability from others", about voluntarily chosen dementia, because it is easier not to remember, and with the loss of memory we are safer - deprived of all responsibility.
"The rest is refusal of food, suffocation and death. That's the end. I mean you stop remembering, you decide not to remember and then you get really sick of it. You become demented and eventually die. And I think that, in a metaphorical sense, death is not only physical, but actually the death of the spirit," said Karanović.
The end of the play is based on the fact that the Queen of England came to Belgrade in the early XNUMXs, and that the protocol entailed greeting her with knicks, which none of the powerful people of that time knew, and on Tito's order, Mira Trailović taught them how to do it on the tennis court.
With stormy applause and ovations, the audience said what they thought about the play, the text, the direction, the actresses - it was their knicks for the queen.
"Do You Remember Dolly Bell" on stage tonight
Tonight on the stage of the Nikšić Theater, at 20:55 p.m., the performance of Chamber Theater "XNUMX" from Sarajevo "Do you remember Dolly Bel" will be performed, which, according to the iconic text Abdullah Sidran, directed and adapted Kokan Mladenovic.
The cast of the play, which premiered in 2019 and has won numerous awards, is led by Emir Hadžihafizbegović.
In addition to him, in "Do you remember Dolly Bell" they also play Gordana Boban, Mirsad Tuka, Tatjana Šojić, Davor Golubović, Elma Juković, Muhamed Hadzovic, Admir Glamocak, Sabit Sejdinović, Amar Selimović, Saša Krmpotić i Son Kurt.
He signs the dramaturgy Vedran Fajković, costume design and scenography Adisa Vatreš Selimović, and the author of the music is Irena Popović.
Tickets are on sale and can be purchased at the ticket office of the Nikšić Theater every day from 10 a.m. to 20 p.m., at a price of 5 euros.
Bonus video:
