If you are exempt from politics, you are an outsider

The piece that has a strong social context is certainly the play "Youth Without God", which was staged in the Montenegrin National Theater last season. Although the text was written in 1936 in Nazi Germany, it corresponds remarkably to the current moment around the world. Through the fate of the young professor, the play describes the freakish ideological way of shaping the consciousness of the German youth of that time - through the educational system, everyday propaganda through the means of public communication (radio and film newsreels), which will lead to cultural and civilizational breakdown, world war, crimes and genocide, and in the end to the cruel suffering of the youth themselves. The role of the professor was entrusted to a Montenegrin actor Miloš Pejović who does not hide that this is one of his "biggest interventions" in the theater.

In addition to him, they also play in this piece Mirko Vlahovic, Danilo Celebic, Dubravka Drakić, Slobodan Marunović, Jovan Dabović, Dragan Racic, Branka Otašević, Aleksandar Radulović, Andrea Mugoš, Tihana Ćulafić, Vukan Pejović, Nikola Perišić, Slavko Kalezić, Slavisa Grubisa, as well as acting students of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts from Cetinje Pavle Bogojević, Milo Perovic, Matija Memedović, Miloš Kascelan, Una Lucic i Stefan Vuković.

The play was also included in the October repertoire, and will be performed on Friday, October 28, on the big stage at 20 p.m.

On this occasion, Vijesti will have a ticket giveaway tomorrow.

Pejović talks to Vijesti about the role of the Professor, but also about the message of the play, as well as the fact that it's like playing with FDU students...

Your professor character literally carries the play "Youth without God". How difficult was it to be the medium between the audience and the whole story?

Being the medium between the audience and the whole story seems pretty easy from this perspective, like any other acting task.

However, when we started, it was one of the biggest problems and requirements, because we had to create a character who is in the story at the same time - playing the story, but also being part of the audience. It was a challenge to find the measure of that - how much we can use that theatrical device without a lot of retelling of events, which could be monotonous. So it was challenging in the process itself, but now at the performances, when the show is on solid footing, it's not such a problem.

The story is set in 1934, during the rise of Nazi Germany, but even though almost a century has passed since then, the play is very current and applicable even today. How much has the youth changed since then, and can the middle generations, to which the professor himself belongs, see them off?

The issue of Nazism and fascism in this play is something that has always been relevant since the beginning of the 20th century, to a greater or lesser extent, until today. The issue of youth extremism in any way. I think that today we are all forced to engage in some activism, if not extreme, you just don't want to be exempt from politics these days. Even if you are exempt from politics, you are an outsider. Unfortunately, it has become impossible not to deal with daily political topics. Although today the pressure is great, when it comes to society and the media, it is not so realistic, nor is our influence as activists, members of parties, political parties. I think we are forced to constantly think about these things, and one extremism leads to another, and that's why the situation is awkward. Members of the middle generation to which the professor also belongs can see it through, but the question is how much they can influence it. Even I, as a member of the middle generation, who lived and grew up during the war in the former Yugoslavia during elementary school, nowadays tends to get lost. Also, some don't want to be part of all the events that go to extremes. I think you should always look for a balance, that's what my generation can offer the younger ones.

Often the youth feel misunderstood. Given that everything is available to them today, have they learned to fight for themselves and raise their voices, or is the system still stifling them?

The system to some extent, like any political one, stifles the youth, but not as much as in repressive systems in history. We are not in that kind of problem. If we have the appearance of being politically active, of fighting by being active on social networks and commenting on something, I think it is a farce that has been served to us. It is a question of general apathy that has somehow crept into the youth. That is the difference between a totalitarian system George Orwell i Aldous Huxley. Orwell wrote about a system where books would be burned and knowledge would be banned, and Huxley wrote that everything would be available, but that with so much on offer for simple entertainment, knowledge would be marginalized. Well, people themselves won't want to get an education, which I think is a big problem of today's youth, and that's more than the system directly suffocating them or doing some kind of repression. In general, a system has been created in which it is very difficult to access real and accurate information, and it is very easy to get lost in half-information and form opinions that are not verified and become extreme that way.

The professor is the one who is between the youth and the system, how difficult is it for him to balance and be equally good for both?

It is difficult to balance because he has never dealt with himself and what is good for him. He tries to maintain his status as a professor through some extreme times, while balancing something that is a humanistic education. The professor I play in "Youth Without God" is a real humanist who tries to convey that and teach the children in his history lectures. Yes, most of the plays and novels are difficult for the professor to balance to somehow educate the youth, while raising his voice against the times of chauvinism and extreme Nazism. What he forgets here is himself, and that is his big problem.

The core of this play is made up of young actors who, when the play was being made, were still students. What was it like working with them?

It was great to work with the students. I like to work with young people and it would be logical to say that they have something to learn from me, but I also always learn something from them. They are fresh from the Academy, still in some acting training, full of enthusiasm, so their energy knows how to lead you and activate you. If I sometimes give some advice, it applies to me as well as to them.

What does the play "Youth without God" mean to you, and why should the audience not miss it?

Youth without God is one of my biggest projects in the theater in Montenegro. It is important to look at it because we can see how easy it is in some fragile teenage years to seduce and lead the youth in the wrong direction. Also and how often, as part of some system and part of some political parties and grandiose ideas, youth can be used and how we don't think about what we are doing to a young person. This is an important play, not only in today's moment, but it will be relevant for the next 20 years, just as it was relevant for the previous 20 years.