In situations that push a person out of the comfort zone, when the circumstances are such that one cannot habitually control reactions, words and actions, the masks fall, and the nature and character of the individual come to light. This also happens in the play "God of Massacre" by the Municipal Theater of Ljubljana, which according to the text Jasmine Reze directed Diego de Brea, and which marked the fourth day of the festival of the Regional Union of Theaters RUTA Grupa Triglav.
The well-known text from 2006 has so far seen several theatrical productions, and a film directed by Roman Polanski. The story revolves around peer violence, which is the reason for the meeting of two pairs of parents who strive to resolve the conflict of their eleven-year-old sons, easily wandering away from the core of the problem. Even though at the very beginning everything runs in a regular manner, politically correct and with a dialogue that can be characterized as democratic, the playwright noted Dragana Tripković at the round table after the performance, as it progresses, it talks more and more and destroys what it was based on in the beginning.
The piece also examines snobbery, social alienation, partner coldness, nonchalance, lack of interest, but also the pursuit of profit, the pharmacomafia, emphasizing that we as a society are far ahead compared to third world countries, and that we are guided by Western values, or the values of Western countries. However, in those "values" there are actually lies, apparent culturedness and imagined superiority compared to the essential ideas of democracy...
When asked by "Vijesti", what would these Western values be today that are presented as difficult to achieve and to be aspired to, the actor Sebastian Kavaca stated that the Balkan view of Slovenia as an advanced country equal to Switzerland is wrong.
"I think the theme of violence is an archetypal theme. It has been going on since the beginning of history, since the beginning of humanity and civilization. Regarding political correctness - Slovenia is often seen as Switzerland from the perspective of the Balkans. That's wrong, because here too there is corruption, crime, economic, political, all sorts, only the ties are different. And these are archetypal questions. When people get a position of power, some will use it, some won't, but it's thin ice to walk on. As for value systems - what are the values today, a full bank account, 500.000 likes on social media? Are the values language, culture, mutual relations, time for coffee with a friend, or is the value hurry, speed, not wasting time? This is the time in which we live and we have to fight to remain human, because we persistently follow that neo-capitalist imperative that does not help us much, but distances us from each other", Kavaca pointed out.
Speaking about the play at the round table, he also pointed out that in the play we witness the fall of the masks worn by all the characters, except for him, who is the only one who is honest, although arrogant, unscrupulous and ignorant towards the whole situation.
"By installing this piece, Diego wanted to show the destruction of the Old Lady - Europe. All that political correctness we talked about at the beginning is actually the mask of each character that gradually falls off. But that's not the case with my character: Allen Ray is brutally honest and has no mask, he doesn't care if he's politically correct and violent, even though he's a lawyer by profession, so we can actually conclude why his son committed violence. As the performance unfolds, we see more and more how the masks fall and how the image from the beginning collapses," Kavaca summed up after the performance.
And the moment when the masks fall is usually beyond the control of the individual...
"People are honest only when they break, when they are no longer politically correct and when they become beasts, because they truly fight for their position. Maybe we don't like it, maybe they don't like themselves either, but in that extreme moment they are honest and have no agendas to guide them, to work and behave in order to get what they want. When someone is pushed into some extreme situation and circumstances outside the comfort zone, then the true nature of the individual is revealed," he concluded.
Kavaca added that the director knew from the very beginning of the process that he did not want "The God of Massacre" to be a salon play, where the dialogue is pro forma, decent, but from the very beginning he wanted it to be a massacre, and with such an approach, a good dynamic was achieved and potential grounding is completely avoided. An actor Uros Smolej he added that this is not a typical choice of text for Diego de Brea, but it provided him with some training ground for a different approach.
"We went in the opposite direction compared to the other versions of this play, avoiding the salon show and showing brutality," said Smolej.
This was confirmed by the actress Iva Krajnc Bagola who also admitted that the team was skeptical about the reception of the audience, due to the fact that as an ensemble on stage they are very loud and quickly say lines, which is sometimes difficult to follow. In the end, she was delighted with the audience's reactions, noting that they were fantastic.
"Some roles are set quite differently from how they were originally conceived. We were guided by Diego's instructions, sometimes it was very difficult, but in any case we wanted to avoid salon acting and salon communication that provides nothing, that takes energy and leaves us without life in us as individuals," she said.
Actress Jana Zupančić she said that during the process they talked a lot about peer violence, and considering that some of them are also parents, the director constantly reminded them of that, asking them to imagine themselves in such a situation.
And although at first glance the whole story is based on an unfortunately common situation, we discover how more and more lives are based on exaggerated and made-up behavior, apparent understanding and tolerance, and underneath which lies no correctness, but rather a restrained creation of expected reactions, and then also unethicality, apathy, aggression, and ultimately the "God of Massacre"...
Hate speech has entered every pore of the country, and there should be no taboos in the theater
When asked by the media about the issue of peer violence and juvenile delinquency, which is happening more and more often in Montenegro, Kavaca and Krajnc Bagola stated that the situation is the same in Slovenia, and social networks, where it has become normal to publish videos of such situations, contribute to everything. ..
"Hate speech has entered every pore of our country. Politicians use it on a daily basis, but that doesn't mean we should use it too. Nevertheless, I think that the space of the theater, or art in general, is a space where there should be no taboos, where all topics should be treated and everything should be discussed, but that does not mean that in real life there is a reason and justification to use it . And all in all, what is this political correctness anyway? Million dollars smile in a fucking Gucci suit stealing millions of dollars... I don't think that honesty should imply violence, but the space of theater and art should treat all these issues", said Kavaca.
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