Hooray for the pillars of our society, is an exclamation and a retort that echoes and warns after the play "Ibsen, mašina" directed by Ana Vukotić, which premiered at the Montenegrin National Theater (CNP) on Sunday evening.
When the pillars of society rest on lies, corruption and personal gain, their collapse is inevitable, but it is an open question how they will collapse, because even the fall can sometimes be dignified and provide hope and optimism. Although he does not suspect it, such is the fall of the stumbling machinery that Vukotić represents. As tragic as it is, it is equally optimistic, leaving faith in conscience and change, which was confirmed by the director.
"Yes, because we are actually a society that cries out for justice. To be recognized, for our actions to be evaluated in the right way. This is what this society is constantly repressing and what is suffocating us both as individuals and as a society. It is important that someone sees our small individual regrets and our small regrets, because we are all flesh and blood people and we have all sinned and we all regret something, and that is important to recognize and allow," said Vukotić.
The superb adaptation, which the director worked with the playwright Željka Udovičić Pleština, combines four plays by the great Norwegian writer Henrik Ibsen and resulted in an attractive, current, everyday and ultimately our own, equally local and global theme and issues of transition, post-war societies, 21st century, democratic or autocratic systems... In the theater, everyone will see it, accept it and (de)mystify it in their own way, just like the characters in the play, but Vukotić in his manner addresses us directly, openly, empathetically, combatively...
"This is a story about us, our present. We all read and read great writers, in order to improve ourselves, to become better. The task of us actors is to point out certain anomalies in society", said actor Simo Trebješanin after last night's premiere, stressing his belief that he will continue to play the show for a long time.
Motifs and strongest lines from "Enemy of the People", "Nora", Heda Gabler and "Pillars of Society" are recognizable. Thus, the combined works of the writer, who is considered the Shakespeare of his time, presented the audience with the "machine" of today, which every individual is faced with. The topicality of themes from Ibsen's works, which date from the 19th century, encouraged the director to deal with them.
"We had to find a way to extract these topics from psychological realism and to find what we lost as a society in the transition", pointed out Vukotić, who succeeded in this.
Link is perhaps the key word in the machinery that Vukotić shows us and in the machine whose drive is a complete team that depicts the storm of society. The importance of absolutely every link and spirit of the collective is also visible in the staging of the theater piece by the entire ensemble, which was perfect on every level - from the light and smoke that create the atmosphere at the very entrance to the auditorium, through the music, scenography, costumes, movements and facial expressions, to the acting individual and partner dances in which the youngest members of the ensemble stood out, and the older ones proved again why they are among the most important acting names in Montenegro, even when, for various reasons, they are not regularly included in the repertoire.
"The most difficult moment for me was when I had to decide in which order the actors would be presented, because I always love those collective presents, but then the moment came to decide which order to go, which was more difficult for me than anything before, because I think all the players gave their own story and brought their own layers and ideas", said Vukotić, commenting on the unity of the ensemble.
Every link is and can be of vital importance for the survival or improvement of society. When only one of the cards in the high tower is not stable or when one domino is wobbly, i.e. when there is rust or caries in society, sooner or later there will be a consequent reaction of stumbling, during which everyone will fall and perish, but in its tragedy it will bring and renaissance - an opportunity and possibility for a new beginning, a new order and a new hope.
At the same time, it only takes one person to be the voice of reason in a stunted and stuck environment, to fight, to wake up, to stir up, to bring about changes or ultimately to leave. But when such people leave, the question is what remains, who and for what, to whose detriment... It is tragicomic how sometimes a victim of the system acts small, irrelevant and ridiculous, for the sake of the common good, how a life can easily be destroyed if it is in the interests of the powerful, that is, the majority, while the paradox is the ease of sacrificing a stranger to a close victim whose disappearance brings emptiness, suffering and guilt, as a sobriety... Is the false general welfare, and in fact the tycoon's benefit, enrichment and power of the ruler, worth living? one man or those on the margins, it's clear...
And all these individuals and individuals, however, can never function independently and in isolation, because we are interdependent beings, not only from each other, but also from others on the planet and in the cosmos.
"That's actually the diagnosis of this society - we've lost empathy," states Vukotić.
So-called women's issues, i.e. human rights and the position of women, both in Ibsen's and in our society, were dealt with in a thoughtful, sufficiently clear and obvious, but not excessively emphasized, let alone hysterical, manner. Thus, extremely subtly, we have women who are often at the service of men, their songbirds with a ringing voice, but also liars who are guilty of ill-bred sons, submissive partners who are taken lightly, even easier to adapt, sisters who wholeheartedly renounce their possessions and they remain alone and without security in the global world - women who do not understand. And all this, through a few lines, scenes, inconspicuously, but powerfully throughout the entire play... These are mostly women who suffer and endure and men who are the pillars of society, the embodiment of morality, but actually all together in the same "sauce", unrelated to gender, related exclusively to humanity.
After the premiere, actress Jelena Minić said that while preparing for her role, she dedicated herself to research and true knowledge of the woman Ibsen spoke about in his plays, whose women are always under a great burden, but awareness...
"It seems to me that the power of women is the least transparent today. It is up to us to make an effort, not to show so much strength and fight, but to follow ourselves and our inner being and to react from that, without any competition with men or each other. The only way out, which is what we are talking about in the play, is to find peace and ask ourselves who we are and where our place is in this society," said Minic.
Vukotić explained that she is not "inclined to feminism in the way it is projected today".
"I think that women are to a large extent the pillars of society, just like men," added the director.
The scenes are interrupted by a dance in the choreography of life where everyone plays their separate role, which contributes to the building of dramaturgy, tension and (internal) struggle. The dance, which is not synchronized, but in a reported cacophony, but perfect in its emotion, which is not surprising, because the movement signs Sonja Vukicevic.
Vanja Magić's scenography is also interesting and very symbolic, which also corresponds with the complete story and points to the connective tissue that exists in every organism or machine. There are also Lina Leković's costumes, clearly black and white or "working class", in extreme red, fiery, powerful or penitent, expressive, but reduced and contemporary, while the music chosen by the director dictates the pace and rhythm of life, encouraging instinctive reflection and reconsideration. Playing with light, shadow, and smoke contributes to the feeling of being hidden and murky, drawing the audience into impurities and a gray zone, while Ana Vukotić and Vanja Magić handled the lighting design, raising the performance to an even greater and more difficult level.
The plays on which the play was based were translated by Anka Katušić Balen. Nataša Milićević is the director's assistant, and Mia Đurović and Jelena Ivančević are assistant costume designers and stage designers. The executive producer of the play is Janja Ražnatović.
Simo Trebješanin, Jelena Minic, Žana Gardašević Bulatović, Miloš Pejović, Ana Vujošević, Aleksandar Gavranić, Luka Stanković, Radmila Škuletić, Lazar Đurđević, Jovan Dabović and Ana Vučković star in the play, which is on the repertoire again on May 16 and 17. The audience greeted the entire ensemble with a long round of applause and returned them as a gift several times.
Bonus video:
