The first premiere in the jubilee year, Chekhov's "Uncle Vanja", directed by Mirko Radonjić, was performed last night in front of the Podgorica audience on the Great Stage of the Montenegrin National Theater (CNP), which is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year.
Earlier in the press, it was announced that it is a play with a very specific type of aesthetics and new theatrical expressions, but also a kind of research present in the process and performance of "Uncle Vanja", and that it represents a step forward in relation to what constitutes the repertoire of a folk theater.
In the process of creating plays, we were constantly thinking about the reactions of the audience, director Mirko Radonjić said after the premiere.
"In Chekhov, the most important thing for an actor is motivation, and we devoted a lot of time to that during rehearsals. Instead of dealing with characters, feelings, characters, we focused on certain situations and the importance of their impact on today," he said, as reported by Mediabiro.
For Radonjić, Chekhov's themes are eternal, accordingly he points out that for him directing is a matter of elementary concept.
"We never had the intention of 'repairing' Chekhov, we cannot cause any damage to that material, we did it in a different way, and we stand behind this project sincerely, just as Chekhov stood sincerely behind his parts", he told the directors of the play "Uncle Vanja".
Actress Jelica Vukčević, who portrays the character of Jelena Andrejevna in the play, said that this is not her first collaboration with Radonjić, and that she is already familiar with the director's ideas as well as his working principles.
"I had infinite trust in him as a director. The whole team worked like one big machine. The most important thing is always to let yourself go in the work process and trust your colleagues. "Somewhere along the line, we knew that the result would be an extremely positive reaction from the audience," she said.
The roles in the play were entrusted to: Aleksandar Gavranić, Jelica Vukčević, Anja Misović (second-year acting students in the class of prof. Branislav Mićunović at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts), Tihana Ćulafić, Pavlo Prelević, Ivan Bezmarević, Ilija Gajević and Jelena Laban.
The performance will also be performed on Monday, March 6, starting at 20 p.m.
Bonus video:
