Decency and dignity died when empathy did

As part of the inter-festival activities of the "City of Theater" JU, we will watch the play "Audience" Vaclav Havel in directing Milan Nešković which premiered at the beginning of this month at the Yugoslav Drama Theater, while the Montenegrin audience has the opportunity to watch it already on December 3 and 4, at 20 p.m. on the stage of "Red Commune" in Petrovac.

The work of the director Milan Nešković is known to the Montenegrin public through long-term cooperation with the "Grad Teatar" festival, which began in 2016 with the impressive hosting of the play "Bela Kafa" by the National Theater from Belgrade, then in 2017 with the play "Prometheus's Way", and continued with the joint production of this festival. with the Yugoslav Drama Theater "Selestina" in 2019, until hosting the multiple award-winning play "Kus petlić", which won the hearts of the audience at this year's festival with its witty and original stage script. The guest appearance of the new play in Petrovac was the occasion for a conversation with Milan Nešković, the director, who described it in the following words:

"The piece 'Audience' is Havel's first piece, created in 1975. It is a one-act play based on a dialogue between the main character Vanjek, a writer who was forbidden to write by the Czechoslovak communist regime, and his employer, the brewer Sladek, who is in charge of spying on his interlocutor. As Havel was a banned writer at the time he wrote the play, the work was performed secretly, in rooms instead of theater spaces. The intriguing past of 'Audiencia' makes it extremely interesting and provocative even today. A seemingly ordinary, prosaic, almost friendly conversation hides a lot more than a simple exchange, almost the most ordinary family information, men's secrets, etc. This text, in a witty and warm way, problematizes problems that are unfortunately still present today, such as censorship, persecution and silencing by all kinds of political totalitarian regimes".

Vaclav Havel's "Audience" is a frequently staged piece. What prompted you to do this play at this moment?

Definitely a period of isolation during the coronavirus pandemic. This play began its creation two years ago, when we Nikola Rakočević, Miodrag Radonjić and I, through the huge motive of the lack of theaters, since they were closed, decided to make this play together dedicated to repressive times and regimes.

It is evident that in the theater you are interested in dealing with problems that concern us today and here, and we drag them from the past. Does pointing them out in the theater have power?

I think that of all the arts, only the theater has that power left. It is certainly weak, but the theater still possesses it in contrast to the film, for example. Let's remember that it is Pier Paolo Pasolini died for his provocative art. Today, it is almost impossible to even imagine that someone would lose their life because of a video. It can happen that it becomes a part of the cultural culture in the worst case... So the theater has that power, but with less and less young audience, so its future is uncertain.

During Yugoslavia, when Havel created this work, we were in the socialist bloc, as was Czechoslovakia at the time. To some extent, people were determined by belonging to the communist party, has anything changed with the arrival of the multi-party system?

No. We only have a nominally multi-party system, but the laws and mentality have remained stuck in communism.

Democracy has essentially never found its application here, and I don't think it will, because it implies cooperation, understanding and acceptance of all parties, no matter how different their views may be. I don't see that this can change in the entire Balkans in the near future.

Is it possible to survive in the modern world without investing in existing political parties, and without daily establishing new, personal parties and powerful clans, adhering to ancient principles of decency and human dignity?

It is certainly possible to survive. In what way and whether you just want to survive or what your aspirations are and what you are ready to do for them, defines each person. Decency and dignity have died for us as well as empathy, and that on the whole planet.

When we have already mentioned politics - can and must culture be measured only by value, and not by belonging to clans and political suitability?

It can and must. Unfortunately, a lot of problems are caused by negative selection in society, but really, at least when it comes to theater, I don't know of an example where a top theatrical work, even if it was by an "unsuitable author", was cut short. On the contrary, I think that quality always finds its way because the audience does not see the theater through the prism of belonging to clans or parties.

What in this day and age can be a truly engaging performance that will wake us up and move us?

This is the hardest question ever. I wouldn't know. That's like asking me how to make a video go viral. It's even an oxymoron. Of course, honesty in dealing with a problem is an excellent way to an engaged theater, but whether that performance will be successful, and whether it will wake up or start... that can be known by some higher forces than us.

This is your first guest appearance in the winter organized by "Grada Teatra", otherwise you are a frequent and welcome guest at the festival itself. How would you describe the cooperation with JU Grad Theater? How do you see this festival?

For me, Grad Theater is one of the last festivals of pure altruistic art. There are no eligible or ineligible shows on it, only quality performances and programs in general, and I am very grateful for that. Especially the management headed by Milena Lubarda Marojević, who, in addition to the fact that she is a top professional in her job, is also a wonderful person and an erudite with whom it is a pleasure to drink a glass of wine after the show. Take care of her, dear citizens of Budva.

In the artistic sense, what has been your biggest challenge so far?

Every next project I do. Again and again there is fear, not of failure, but of uncertainty, but it is also the driving force. When that feeling is gone, I believe I will stop doing this business.

What are you currently working on?

I am currently preparing the play "The Seagull" AP Chekhov in the National Theater of Sombor in my own adaptation and I am very much looking forward to this new and quite unusual reading of this classic that we as a group of conspirators conceived and implemented in the previous two months. The premiere is in a few days, and I hope that our enthusiasm will spread to the audience.