Nora is the embodiment of a silent and centuries-old female struggle

Time passes, but things don't change, historical contexts try to be different, but the problems remain the same... This was said by the director Nela Vitošević after the performance of the play "Nora" on the second night of the festival of the Regional Union of Theaters RUTA, which is hosted from the 8th to the 13th April City Theater Podgorica.

Nora is, precisely, the embodiment of a quiet and centuries-old female struggle, both as a female character and as a drama and as a revolutionary text by Henrik Ibsen created at the end of the 19th century, which should be represented in the theater repertoire and performed again. Placed on the stage of the Municipal Theater of Ljubljana, Nora is extremely contemporary and relevant to today's and what would be called "women's issue" and "(women's) freedom", and this was deeply felt by the audience at the Cultural and Information Center "Budo Tomović".

Nora stands out as one of the most significant female characters in literature and theater, one of the first and most recognizable feminists whose arrival, and actually departure, caused a scandal in Norwegian and European society when the text was written, so Ibsen adapted it several times. .. Although crumbs of freedom have been won, the woman is still under the stigma of a patriarchal system that lightly lynches the courageous protagonist for decisions in her own life.

The text, purified from the era, brings a timeless action that emphasizes, unfortunately, always the same, but neglected problems and struggles of women, with themselves, men, social norms, expectations of others and the world. Knowledge of value, responsibility and duty towards oneself, however, can change something.

That a woman is not a doll that flirts, a bird that chirps other people's notes and dedicatedly subordinates her life to others who impose themselves as primary, is shown by the dashing heroine who approaches life with a veil of joy and satisfaction, which accumulates as her own strength for resistance. Although her wings are tied until she herself frees them from the cage that is actually her seemingly perfect marriage, family, husband and life, Nora will succeed in this, shaken by the reality that she observed rapturously while standing in it, as a third person.

The play evokes empathy, but also anger, calls for reconsideration and opens those questions and topics that we owe to ourselves, primarily as humans, beings deprived of functions. All this was recognized by the audience of the RUTA festival and after the two-hour performance greeted the ensemble with long applause and a standing ovation. Then there was a round table led by Dragana Tripković, the playwright of the City Theater Podgorica, who reminded us of the Montenegrin "Nora" directed by Branislav Mićunović, which she believes is theatrically authentic, current and attractive even today. The director of the Slovenian "Nora", Vitošević, stated that the time we live in is, in a certain way, even worse than the 19th century, when Ibsen wrote this play.

The playwright of the play, Petra Pogoverc, revealed that a strong motive for staging this play was the fact that "Nora" became reading material for high school students, which encouraged them to deal with the text, but to make it more refined and receptive... Vitošević modernized the story by shaping the genre , but added a subtle ending that does not drastically affect the entire story, but contributes to understanding, while in the combination of narration and play, confession, memory and reality, it revives reality and intimacy.

"We can start from the fact that time passes and things do not change, historical contexts try to be different, but the problems remain the same. I would like to mention the concept of memory that I inserted for two reasons, the first is that things don't change, and the second is that when I read this play, I wanted to see it under a certain genre and I decided on a domestic thriller. These are thrillers that were usually written by women and in which women are at the very center of the story, and in which some problem happens inside the house. By retelling the memories, I wanted to underline the thriller atmosphere in some way, which would give the piece a contemporary thread and make the text easier for the actors," said Vitošević and said:

"It is important to say something about that individual freedom, that Nora should close it, because from a contemporary perspective, women are even more stigmatized compared to the time when the play was written in the 19th century, when there was a strong patriarchy."

Actress Ajda Smrekar is entrusted with the heroine that many actresses wish for, and along with her are Matej Puc, Jernej Gašperin, Nina Rakovec and Jurij Drevenšek. The ensemble showed with a minimalistic expression how it leads to the breaking of an established system, and Smrekar embodied Nora on stage in a reduced, drinkable, fragile and tender way, with a storm inside.

"During the work process, I tried to keep an open heart and not judge the character of Nora in any way, because the first association when you do Nora is always that she is the woman who left her children and husband, and when a woman does that, it becomes a big problem. but I don't think anyone asks why it happened and what were the circumstances that led to it. I think that Nora is today an example not only for women's rights, but also for human rights, which we should fight for every time", said Smrekar.

In a time when people as individuals are in principle more and more individuals, in contrast to decades behind us when they primarily identified themselves as part of a collective, we often encounter alienation and its numerous consequences. Alienation from the community, from another person, but also from ourselves, that alienation that does not allow the individual to develop in a healthy way. Referring to that, Smrekar added:

"We live in a world where we no longer know how to listen to ourselves, as we are constantly influenced by the opinions of others. I think it is very important that we listen to ourselves today, because otherwise life will force you to do so. I think it is very important to take responsibility for your actions and actions, and then also responsibility for yourself," said the actress.

The director Vitošević further reminded that Nora is one such person today who is guided through life and realized that she is living an illusion, forgetting about her own needs, which, in practice, she never had, because she simply got lost.

"That's why I think this is a very modern piece today, because in today's chaotic, capitalistic, terrible society in which we live, it is very easy for a person to get lost, but also to find himself again and to win that freedom that needs to be preserved, for which you have to fight, and which leaves scars and traumas, both external and internal... You know, it's something with society. And that's why freedom is not easy. And if we're talking about feminist issues and how we've progressed, I say again that we haven't. Neither in the political, nor in the social, nor in the economic sense, because differences between the sexes still exist. That is clear, and this text deals with it very well, and because of that, it corresponds with today's individual and today's collective", concluded the director.