Tragically realistic, anxious and emotional stories of three women of different ages, a young Croatian actress Tonka Mršić she presented "the land of wolves or the land of wolf people", primarily her native Lika, but actually every small middle of the states of the former Yugoslavia.
Author's project "Land of Wolves", which Tonka Mršić realized together with a colleague Galom Nikolic, produced by the Ulysses Theater from Brion, was performed on the second day of the festival of the Regional Union of Theatres, RUTA GROUP TRIGLAV in Podgorica.
The poignant testimonies were inspired by real characters, the actress revealed later in the conversation, and considering that it is a guest performance, an excellent and powerful monodrama, the question arises whether the local audience is aware of what they are missing by missing a guest performance. "Land of Wolves" talks about the small Lika environment and cocooned society and offers a kind of tour and getting to know Lika, but also recognition of oneself...
The beginning of the play could be described with the phrase "from the sky to the ribs". An old woman in a corota, pushed by life and suffering, moves from the direction of the audience and enters the stage. She prepares lunch and calls her son to join her. He talks to the picture Nikola Tesla which runs through the entire play from the place where a portrait would once have stood in a house Tita, and for some, an icon would stand in the same place... The old woman cooks and prepares lunch for herself and her son every day. She calls him to come and sit down, talks to him... And then, a howl, a scream and the stomach turns over with the realization that the old woman cooks and sets lunch every day for her son, who, the audience will soon understand, she lost in the war and who is no longer there. Sobbing, she confesses that she doesn't even know where her son's bones are and that there is nowhere to take a flower to his grave...
"You brag about your war, your country, and I don't have a son!" she exclaims, as if ripping the heart out of the throats of those present. And then he is "called" and at some point he says that he does not regret going to war, because what would the community say if he didn't, how would his neighbors react, what would they say to her and how would they look at her, what kind of man would he be? was... "Better dead than a deserter"... Where do we live and how is it that weapons and war are more important than family lunch and mother's pain? Land of Wolves, the title explains…
However, through the remaining characters of the author of the play, they talk about patriarchal society, the shackles of traditionalism, the position of women in it, the (impossibility) of choice, pressures and expectations, frustrations and misfortunes, the consequences of war and the impossibility of resisting the past...
The young actress rules the stage and the audience with her energy and charisma.
Stepping out of the long black skirt and scarf on her head, the grandmother transforms on stage into a married woman in her thirties, an exemplary wife by the standards of society and the environment, a woman who is pregnant with a son "and not with a baby" and who waits for her husband every day with a hot meal to come home from work and be careful not to spend too much of his hard-earned money. After returning from church, she talks to her best friend, brings up various topics with a forced smile, and thus reaches the peak of frustration and dissatisfaction when she discovers that her husband is cheating on her, her best friend. And, devastatingly, in a small circle, that very woman will be condemned as immature and unnecessary to her husband, a man who wonders... She will be condemned as guilty of her husband's infidelity, but she will justify the fact that a man beats a woman and will not allow yourself freedom, because what would the middle class say if she got divorced and raised a child by herself and how would they look at her? Where do we live when a woman is still silent and suffers and is blamed for actions that are not hers? What is it like to be a woman (in a small community like Lika), in the "Land of Wolves"?...
A young woman is not left out either, a teenager waiting in shackles for her father to marry her to a man of his choice. In the shackles of society, religious and national divisions, in the shackles of a father who wonders about everything, including his daughter's fate, she is waiting for someone she doesn't want. And she wants to be a singer, like czech... In comic bursts, he also says how much he envies her because Ceca can marry whomever she wants, but also interprets the song "Coward" proving her abilities that her father denies her to use... And in her desire for freedom and rebellion, in at one point he chokes and suffocates against his own spite. What kind of society is it that stifles youth?
And then poetry happens, as the actor noted Dejan Đonović at the round table held after the performance... Mrsićeva will wear a white silk dress from her black costumes and, not from the mouth of some fourth character, but in her own voice, speak about the play, about her place, about the environment and the society in which she lives. In a dreamy, but strong and determined voice, she talks about how she feels, talks about the senselessness of war and asks what would happen if we all dreamed together... "We would breathe life", she says. She points out that "opinions about the play differ from the place where it is performed", but also admits that she won her freedom: "I used to believe in fairy tales, now I believe in myself". The audience asks if they and are we free? She begins to hum, and the audience along with her, thus sending her off in washed-up old clothes that the environment does not approve of, but which are comfortable for her... So the company will see off many others from her generation (who have not already left) wishing to leave the stage with which originated...
"Depending on the scene and the country where it is played, the play always causes different reactions. On the stage in Gospić, even though I call them out directly, the play was well received, while it was perhaps the best received in Serbia. In Zaječar, where the play was played, the big stage was filled to the last allowed place. I also played in Istria, a well-organized environment, and the audience's impressions are different everywhere," the actress said later during the discussion about the play.
Director of the City Theater Podgorica, and playwright Stevan Koprivica he praised the acting skills, but also the dramaturgical endeavor.
"With energy and skill, a painful subject and painful motives, you found a way to reach catharsis, which is the purpose of theater," he said to Mršić and noted that in the play there is a constant current Serbo-Croatian issue, which he describes as an "unsolvable syndrome". .
It is precisely through this Serbian-Croatian question that the character of Tesla can be observed, which connects the entire play and with whom each of the three characters speaks, confessing and calling upon him as a deity.
The conversation was moderated by a playwright from the City Theatre Dragana Tripković, who said that this story screams the theme of patriarchy, which is part of all nationalist and political categories.
"By the fact that the main character is a woman with all her typical Balkan characteristics, the play points to reflection on who is the present-day woman, who is the present-day grandmother and who is the present-day girl," Tripković said, and Mršić confirmed that they that question was the biggest guide.
"It was important for us to give space to women in this play, considering that even today they don't have it, at all levels," she explained.
The comments after the performance prove that the performance moved the audience as well. Longtime director of the City Theatre, Vanja Popović, she sent congratulations and words of support and said about the play:
"I think that this performance will greatly mark this edition of the RUTA festival. I will say that this is a play that could have taken place in all areas of the former Yugoslavia, if in one of the regions or provinces of those countries some two actresses had agreed. We do not tie it to the territory. It's not just Lika, it's our homeland, Yugoslavia. That is why the play must go well everywhere except where the theater is not seen as theater and except by those who refuse to look the truth in the eye. What hurts in addition to all the beauty and atmosphere that we had the opportunity to hear and see, and even to enjoy it, is that in addition to all that, we leave with bitterness. I think that in Montenegro at this moment the prevailing atmosphere is very affected. It's a coincidence, especially at the end when you look back and talk about freedom. That impressed me a lot. It's no wonder that people cry at this performance, especially at the end. It concerns all of us, the life we live in," concluded Vanja Popović.
A few words and applause for director and professor Dejan Mijač
The round table started differently compared to the usual practice. Stevan Koprivica began by saying goodbye to professor and director Dejan Mijač, who died on April 5 in Belgrade.
"A few days ago, one of the most important Yugoslav theater directors, Dejan Mijač, left us, a man who marked the Yugoslav theater of the 20th century with his work with more than 90 plays, from Chekhov, Moliere, to Dušan Kovačević and Aleksandar Popović. Mijač is a man who had a refined and unique handwriting. In our business, it is difficult to recognize when enough is enough, and he left his professorship and direction before his full creative capacity and decided to leave this job, because, on one occasion, he said: 'I will not spoil myself'. He was a great man who passed away at the age of 87 and I would like to say that there is a great division and new plays waiting for him there, but we all know that is a metaphor and there are no such things there, but that is why there are great works and the large theater that Dejan built during his lifetime. In our business, people who leave this world are greeted with applause", said Koprivica, and all those present reciprocated with a long and strong applause in honor of respected Mijač.
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