The tragedy of the land without a view

Europe is so sad... My homeland is this cramped place. My homeland is a land without a view...

Arrogantly faced with what we as humanity are and what we have created, at the same time as a mere statement, an urgent warning, a mitigating confession or perhaps the ultimate surrender, the play "Misunderstanding" in action Albert Camus and directed Damjana Pejanovic she jolts us out of hibernation with this, but also with a series of other lines that break her through the audience.

A unique vibration spreads through the great hall of the Montenegrin National Theater (CNP) as we face the archetype of man in an extremely (post)apocalyptic atmosphere on the one hand and in the devastating instincts of (pre)civilization on the other in the agonizing agony of silence and screams.

The new CNP production, premiered on Tuesday evening, is certainly a special step forward on the theater scene, both for the umbrella theater company and the state. It stands out as a combination of a thoughtful, intelligent, and intellectually, psychologically and philosophically quite demanding setting that in about an hour leaves you breathless, suffocates, provides artificial respiration and revives. Not in the least pretentious or arrogant, without inscrutable messages, it clearly indicates the potential that lies in the domestic theater, from the superb directorial process, fantastic scenography, costume design and make-up, music, sound, video, to the genius acting in which five actors powerfully rule the stage, while and drag the audience into a marathon of life whose pace they dictate.

The piece perfectly interprets Kami, showing social and emotional alienation through the staging of the action of his work, which is set in a small inn far from civilization, while there is also a kind of insight into Kami's personal struggles and anxieties, and on the other hand, a superb parallel is made with the man from the beginning until today and in the end - he warns...

The inn is run by a mother and daughter Marta, one exhausted, wounded and with a faded soul and petrified heart, the other embittered and frustrated by an unfair life, longing for comfort, carefreeness, warmth and warmth - love.

Tired of fears and (repressed) emotions, in a land of narrow horizons and stagnant society, individuals dream of a sunny coast, sun and sea, but forget that the solution to their lives is themselves. Anxiety, hopelessness, anger, fatigue, fear, indignation at ourselves and the entire human race, which with every individual contribution is just the way it is and which as such we often loathe..., are present as the motifs of the play "Misunderstanding" that dances with abstraction, brings an undertone of the end, confronts sin and suffering and offers a renaissance...

The audience at the premiere was visibly engrossed in the plot, which is set in such a way that it departs from classical theater, but remains faithful to powerful and multi-layered theatrical devices. Multidimensional in itself, it seems that each of those present, with their presence, silence and close monitoring of the game, brought an additional dimension to the play with their own thoughts, silence, rhythm of breathing... The long applause and standing ovations at the end are a confirmation of that, but also a bow to the excellent actors. ensemble consisting of: Ana Vujošević, Petar Novaković, Jelena V. Đukić, Radmila Božović i Zoran Rakočević who, although a theater director by profession, in one specific role that moves between narrator, witness, servant and conscience, shows a wide range of enviable acting abilities.

In addition to directing, Pejanović is also the author of the play's adaptation and lighting design, set designer Ivanka Vana Prelevic she created a scene that equally contributes to the hermeticity of the depicted worlds and broadens the perceptions of the story, the costume designer Lina Lekovic she made the plot of waves outside of the time frames known to us, thus requiring visual imagination, she was in charge of the music Vjera Nikolić which, as expected, made music an indispensable part of the action and a member of the ensemble, and shaped the stage movement Tamara Vujosevic Mandic which precisely set everything to a higher level. She is the director's assistant Minja Novakovic, costume designer's assistant Mia Đurović and executive producer Danilo Milatović. And all together they did an excellent job and put on a show that definitely expects a long life and playing at festivals.

Loneliness, fear, impersonality, surrender and adaptation result in exclamations: “I'm tired; You owe me; I can't find the right words, I don't want you to leave me alone" and represent the epilogue of the tragedy.

A combination of camera and theater, manipulation of the narrative and direction to the focus

In addition to the actors and the live theater, the play and the entire atmosphere are shaped by a video segment that carefully directs the audience's focus to what is the core of that moment on stage - eyes, face, facial expression, emotion that is reflected in every pore and wrinkle, movement, shadow, soul, fear, (un)peace...

Close-up shots allow us to deeply feel the emotion they convey, but also for the make-up and costumes to move us out of the time frame.

"In my opinion, the camera specifically represents a kind of director's expression that can manipulate the narrative. I personally often get annoyed when the audience in the theater laughs at things that are not funny, emphasize things that are not important, although each viewer observes it based on their own experience. I I tried to somehow manipulate attention and make that camera not only a kind of art, but also a kind of narrative," explains the director.

And it's not that he manipulates attention, but directs it and shows how often we neglect the essence by surrendering to the trivial.

Actor Petar Novaković believes that "it was high time we did something of such high aesthetics in CNP" and he believes that the team succeeded in that.

"This is an experiment in the combination of the camera as a medium and theater. It is quite tactile and delicate. I didn't even hope that I would ever be able to play at this level, but we were all given a magical space that we filled, and that's why this process is precious to me," he said after the premiere.

Ambitions do not spare, human life is not valuable to them, nothing has changed

"The Misunderstanding" was written in 1942 and throughout the play it was suggested several times in different ways that "Europe is so sad", both in Camus's time and today. Ana Vujošević confirms that throughout history man has not learned from his mistakes.

"We have not learned anything from the past. We live in the 21st century, aware of the First World War, aware of the Second World War, nuclear power, our wars, and then the suffering of various other nations and those wars that did not concern Europe, and after all that we have war and suffering again... Ambitions not they despise and are here, because human life is not valuable to them", Vujošević said after the premiere, emphasizing the enviable talent and high potential of the director, for whom she predicts a top career.

At some point, the story is accompanied by a video that reminds us of the numerous sufferings, crimes and sins of man that have followed us forever, either through biblical stories, motifs from ethnic dramas, Greek myths and legends, until today when they continue to repeat themselves...

"The video that we have in the play was conceived in such a way that it starts from 1942, when Kami wrote the novel, and goes up to today... And nothing has changed. In the clip, mutually contradictory things are shown, so we recognize both the litia and the Belvedere. .. I didn't want to take sides, but I wanted to point out everything that is wrong, no one is bypassed, everyone is there," says director Pejanović.

Jelena Đukić says that working on this piece encouraged her to question how aware she is of the time she lives in, but also to question herself in the context of time and circumstances, and then to push her own boundaries - physical, emotional, acting...

"In such a dark world, when we are unable to hear and truly recognize ourselves and the people around us, there is always a danger that everything will come to that perfect order where no one recognizes anyone, when the world and life no longer have meaning and the only meaning is death'. I was reborn in this process and with these people, I'm happy that we got such a response from the audience and I hope that we will have many more performances", said Đukić.

Certainly, it seems that an interesting short (experimental) film was created at the same time as the play, which emphasizes man, expression and various misdeeds that are repeated while we freeze life in separated capsules of everyday life.

In their selfishness, everyone tries to say something, but does not listen to the other

Although Kami offers a philosophical theater that is not necessarily current at all times, the line that connects us with his handwriting is easy to draw, especially today where, as the director says: "everyone in their selfishness tries to say something and doesn't listen to the other".

"People cannot hear what someone else wants and says because of their own talkativeness and rapacity... We are occupied with what we have to say. That's why Europe is really sad today, the saddest," concludes Pejanović.

Vujošević adds that "Disagreement" carries many archetypal messages that were not easy to put on stage, from the position of women, patriarchy, suffering, to social alienation.

"In our stereotype or archetype, we have the fatigue of the mother, which is also shown in this play, and which also deals with the issue of the position of women. You have heard how much the son is favored, how much the man is above, because the man goes to war, creates politics, commits various crimes, everything in relation to a woman who does not get what is owed to her...", says Vujošević and continues:

"The play fantastically treats the alienation that we are so familiar with. We don't talk to each other, and silence is doom. By making an agreement, we can avoid suffering and crimes, everything bad that happens to us, so that Europe would not be sad, so that civilization would not be sad, and with the aim of giving the posterity some hope so that they would welcome the morning sun with joy... 'Tomorrow will be better '", says the actress, repeating a line from the play.

Emotion, conversation, hope and a little imagination

And every tomorrow is a new today. Novaković points out that every day brings new struggles.

"We survive the apocalypse every day. Maybe this is what we need to rise like phoenixes, because 'there is no man who does not die,'" he says, recalling the drama Velimir Stojanović from 1974, which marked a time in a special way from a personal perspective.

As a kind of fight against what poisons us and what we poison ourselves with, Jelena Đukić finds emotion.

"I think that emotion is something that we are often ashamed of, that we run away from, that we close ourselves off from. But emotion is what makes us human when we are most wonderful, and that truth is the only way to learn to recognize, channel and direct emotions to create , not destruction," she says.

Silence, avoidance, closure, fear are the key causes of tragedies, according to Ana Vujošević, and she sees "agreement, honesty, love that is given, from which you do not run away and which you are not afraid of - conversation, dream, hope and a little imagination" as the cure. .

He chose people and was grateful to Baćović

The young Montenegrin director Damjan Pejanović brought a contemporary and unusual reading of Camus' deeply existential work to the stage of the national theater. The play was produced by CNP, and the project was agreed upon during the tenure of the current director Marko Baćović who recognized the importance of this process and gave Pejanović the opportunity and freedom to create, supported the entire team in their expression and bravely ceded the stage of the national theater for something that is not classical, traditional and expected.

"First I would like to thank the former director, unfortunately the former, Mr Marko Baćović, for having the ear and faith to give a chance to do something that is not conventional and that we are not used to until the end, because we don't see it every day. I hope that we have taken at least a small step towards what he believed in," said Pejanović.

He also points out that the work was created in cooperation with everyone who was involved in it, but also that he chose who he would work with.

"I chose the collaborators with whom I will work. The play is created in a live space and with the joint work of all of us, ideas come from different heads, from the experiences of the people who work on it... I tried to listen to all my collaborators and that's how we got this piece as it is," he concludes.