"Beautiful Voice" as a subversive echo of a classic

In a modern age that increasingly encourages (self)questioning, theatre remains a rare art form that continues to boldly enter the core of social discourse, posing uncomfortable but necessary questions about identity, gender and the culture that shapes us. This engaging potential of theatre is brilliantly demonstrated in the play “Une Belle Voix”, strongly shaped by Minja Novaković.

The play, inspired by the novel "The Nun" by the Enlightenment philosopher and writer Denis Diderot, was performed as part of the international collective project “The Sexual Theatre - Feminist Reading of Classics”. This project seeks to fundamentally reexamine canonized narratives through a radically feminist lens, and was realized in partnership with the Bosnian National Theatre Zenica, the Portuguese Theatro Circo, the domestic Grad Teatar Budva, and the Paul Valéry University in France, where the play premiered.

"The play sparked important discussions, especially around the topic of wearing the hijab and the interpretation of the laïcité law in France. The issue of the selective application of that law and the attitude towards women's bodies and religion in public space attracted the most attention," said Novaković.

Speaking about the motives that attracted her, Novaković explained that she was immediately drawn to the fact that the novel was only published after the author's death, and was banned for a long time due to its anticlerical message.

"The novel was banned for a long time due to its anticlerical message, and it was only published after Diderot's death, which is what immediately attracted me. The cruelest satire ever written about monasteries. A woman's struggle against the shackles of the institution, the destruction of social norms and ideas about the role of women. At the beginning of the project, I spent a month in an artistic residency in France with playwright Nedžma Čizmo, where we jointly researched, talked, exchanged ideas with people from different social classes and visited monasteries, cathedrals, feminist organizations, and universities so that we could delve deeper into the topics that Diderot opens up in the novel itself. The collected materials gave us a deeper insight into the contemporary political situation, the position of women and religion in France. This play was created out of a desire to deconstruct a classic – not to reject it, but to reexamine it from the inside and discover its layers that still 'sting' us," explains the director.

The title of the play itself can be translated as "A Beautiful Voice", which, as Novaković said, represents an ironic distance from the patriarchal expectations society places on women.

“The title arose from an ironic distance from the expectations placed on the female body and female being – to be beautiful, pleasant, tame. In Diderot's 'The Nun', the voice of the main character is constantly silenced – through institutions, religion, authorities. And we were interested in what happens when that voice finally speaks – not to be beautiful, but to be true. The 'beauty' of the voice in this context is not an aesthetic category, but an act of resistance,” she points out.

The novel "The Nun" was written in 1760, but Novaković believes that the parallels with today's society still exist.

“We cannot ignore the fact that a work written in 1760 very boldly and directly reflects the society we live in today. The parallels between the society of 1760 and today, unfortunately, are not at all symbolic – they are brutally concrete. What strikes me most is the fact that the obsession of the individual by the system still functions with almost identical mechanisms. Only the patterns have become more subtle – but no less harmful,” believes Novaković.

The play has the already mentioned motif of women's struggle against the shackles of institutions, and Novaković explains the reason for choosing this motif as her desire to expose the narrative of men as saviors.

“The role of women in society is still burdened with multiple stigmas, especially when additional circumstances intersect – such as nationality, skin color, class or sexuality. Women are still seen as someone who needs ‘protection’, most often from themselves or other women. In this context, I wanted to expose the narrative of men as saviors and the idea that ‘women are wolves to women’ – which is, in fact, a consequence of a patriarchal structure that encourages women to compete with each other instead of showing solidarity,” she explains.

She adds that it is both fascinating and frightening how positions of power often force women to adopt male patterns of behavior.

"I also find it fascinating - and frightening - how women in positions of power often unconsciously adopt male patterns of behavior, because the system does not leave them room to express power differently. And it is not their fault - it is a result of the power model we have inherited," said Novaković.

Referring to Diderot's quote "Be terrible..., but let the horror you cause be tempered by a great moral idea," Novaković says that her directorial intention can be found in that quote.

"Diderot, who stood on the most revolutionary barricades of the spirit of France and Europe at the time, a representative of libertarian thought known as the ''genius avant-garde of new truths'' became an inspiration for my directorial work. If I could describe my directorial intention, then it could all fit into this quote. We must be brave, brutally honest for the sake of the truth," said Novaković.

She explained that the research part of the work was crucial for laying the foundation, but in the creative act itself, instinct and emotion took precedence.

“The research part was crucial in laying the groundwork – from interviews and collecting material to analyzing the context. But in the creative process itself, instinct and emotion took over. These topics touch us personally, and so it was inevitable that the work would be both deeply emotional and therefore healing,” she explains.

For Novaković, the work on the play itself was experimental and exploratory, emphasizing that it was very important that everyone within the play stood behind what they said.

"The work was experimental and exploratory, both in form and content. It was very important to me that each person individually build a voice that is authentic - that the actresses really stand behind what they say, that they think, feel and convey it. I was interested in a true female code - an expression that is organic. The most interesting thing of all was testing female solidarity within the process and the idea of ​​sisterhood in general. We overcame numerous challenges and cultural differences and proved that feminism is not a mere ideology, but something that we should all strive for as a society," said Novaković.

The biggest challenge in this creative endeavor, as Novaković explains, is to preserve the complexity of Diderot's ideas.

"The biggest challenge was to preserve the complexity of Diderot's ideas, while freeing them from historical distance - so that they would not remain in the time they belong to, but would directly communicate with today's audience. When I felt that this was no longer an "adaptation of Diderot", but our personal struggle, our truth, then the work on the play became alive and full of artistic satisfaction," she said.

Novaković said that theater has the power to truly raise its voice against social norms and ask the right questions.

"Absolutely. I believe that theatre has no obligation to provide answers, but it has a responsibility to ask the right questions - bravely and without calculation. When it is not lulled, it can be political, subversive and dangerous. Its power lies in the fact that it happens live, and that is something that society still cannot fully control, and therein lies its strength," she concluded.