Little things are very necessary, often hard to reach. They complete, comfort, complete, fail, make life more beautiful, or harder. Little things are those ordinary moments that fly by like butterflies, pieces of a puzzle that, left aside, get lost, sincere words that are missing in their meaning, kindness, understanding and love that make the day more beautiful and multiply by sharing... That's all that we already know what we can never be immune to, but too often we are stingy and stubborn, we get away with it naively believing that there is time or somehow there will be... While our attention is occupied by big longings, greedy needs, high ambitions, preconceived beliefs and imposed patterns of behavior, such as a polecat, slip away from the very things by which, after all, life is worth measuring.
In "Little things that mean life", all that stops, and the play of the same name brings a completely different, much-needed, warm, gentle, restrained and quiet story that hides a storm of emotions.
The show, co-produced by the Tivat Culture Center, the National Theater and Beoart from Belgrade, opened the show "FebruArt" in Podgorica on Wednesday evening. The audience in the hall of the Cultural and Information Center "Budo Tomović", which was full to the last seat, from the very beginning took over the breathing rhythm introduced by the ensemble, and with long applause and standing ovations, with smiles, but also a lot of unconcealed tears, the team led by Mladen Andrejević was greeted.
While life happens on stage, thanks to the masterful acting, extremely realistically and closely, we realize that life often passes by in front of us, while we watch it from the comfort of our armchair or the discomfort we are used to without striving to change anything.
Created under the direction of Andrej Nosov based on the text of the Italian writer Lorenzo Marone, the play proves that the magic of the theater is often also in its simplicity, in the so-called little people, in a play that does not abound with excessively strong expressions, loudness, jerks, tension, and that with trust, emotion and the beauty of the game, faithfully portrays life. The secret is revealed at the very beginning: Ćesare, played by Andrejević, is a swarthy and grumpy man in his 70s who decides to, one would say in his late years, make up for the wasted life and start living it for real.
"That's what a person realizes only after some time in his life has passed, because when you're young, the doctrine of 'I want now and I want everything' applies, and I think that's how a person doesn't have the right attitude towards life. Of course, there are many wonderful things in youth, it is rebellious, full of energy, will and desire to change the world and much more. But then, when you get to a certain age, only then do you see what real life is, which seemed to you not good enough before and in relation to what you wanted to be different. That's how things get passed to people and that's how people lose the ability to enjoy the moment. Then you realize that everything is not irrelevant and that if something means something to you and fulfills you, even if it is not a heroic deed and a big thing, it is still what makes life. And life is made up of dear people, good friendships, cultivating the garden, the pleasure that brings many other important things that often seem not very important," Andrejević summed up in an interview with "Vijesti".
His persuasive, completely natural, sufficiently expressive and emotionally strong, but also humorous performance, completely "sucked" the audience into the complete action of the story. Cesare is self-absorbed, rude, disinterested, but only in appearance... When he starts to live to the fullest in order to live the rest of his life, his change becomes strange, suspicious, unaccepted, and he gets what he previously provided... Daughter Katerina (Vanja Ejdus), son Dante (Dušan Matejić), neighbor Ema (Nina Nešković) and "partner with a tariff" Rosana (Nela Mihailović) make up his world, which is slowly opening up, and each of the mentioned characters brings an important layer of the work, reports on current topics in society and the life we live...
"I think that some of the meaning of this play is exactly that. He, who made a lot of mistakes, realized that and now he's finally trying to do something that he didn't have the courage to do when he was young and alive, while living a life he hated... I mean, he's not an ideal man, but, again realized something and tried towards the end of his life to do something with that knowledge and to (change) himself", says Andrejević, who adds that such realization always carries value and power in itself.
In film fragments depicting frames of a familiar experience, the play evokes a certain feeling for everyone, encourages reconsideration, perhaps change and/or regret, with the encouragement that those "little things that mean life" can always be embraced or provided. Set in the modern, fast, age of technology, haste, cheating, hiding and not understanding, the question arises as to how much time is left for those essential things that make up life...
"It all depends on how someone understands, grasps, realizes what they want. I have that smartphone, but I need it to communicate with my daughter who doesn't live here, I have WhatsApp, but I don't have Facebook, I don't have Instagram. I am not involved in those networks. It's exhausting when such communication starts... You know, I look around and often there is a young couple sitting somewhere, drinking coffee in a bar, both on their phones, so I'm joking - maybe they're texting each other... A few days ago I saw a small child in a stroller, on a bus, I don't even know if he's a year old. She handles that phone, a little girl, types, stabs, looks, and it keeps her focused, it animates her, she's calm and that's it, it's cool, that's how it's become now... It's become an obsession for everyone, and life passes us by ”, says Andrejević.
The play refers to universal questions about love, loss, loneliness, but also the fear of aging, focusing on what constitutes the joy of living.
"It indicates that one should not waste one's life. Because life goes by quickly, and when you waste it... There is no end, maybe you only need to grow, maybe never to mature, but only to grow, to constantly discover some new circles, not to be stuck in a cocoon, to never you don't say, 'Well, that's it, it's over, there's no more,'" says Andrejević.
A significant exchange
The performance of the play "Little things that mean life" was also announced for last night in Tivat, as a co-producer, and since its premiere, it has been intoxicating the audience wherever it is a guest. When asked about the importance of cooperation and exchanges in the field of theater, Andrejević has words of praise for revues and events of this type, but, he admits, things have changed.
"I think that Boris Mišković from Beoart, with his revue of plays that he has been organizing for years and for which he has prepared several plays and performances in several cities, has done a lot in the context of exchange. It's not like it used to be, everything has become very expensive, money is needed and there is no money. I think this is the right measure, even when it comes to the ensemble, the number of performances, the mini-tour and the revue," said Andrejević.
A silence that can be heard and felt
The audience in Podgorica recognized everything that the characters and actors spoke about from the big stage of KIC "Budo Tomović". Andrejević, whose role is physically, mentally and emotionally extremely demanding, felt this and in an interview with "Vijesti" he said that, in the end, only the audience asks about the quality of the play, and impressions like the ones he heard after the performance confirm its value. and the importance of playing this work.
“I've been an actor for many years and I'm kind of experienced about it. Then I can easily recognize the silences and I can recognize when it is the silence in which people listen or when it is the silence in which people's heads fall. You can hear that silence. I can hear and feel how the piece is going, how it is growing. You know, when a person is well-coordinated, when we trust each other, when the game is intense, then the audience also trusts us. And when people dance only in such a way as to follow each other's spoken text, then the audience unmistakably feels that too. In all of this, the audience is actually the only one who asks, and is the only one who is authoritative," says the actor.
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