I see, children, you have studied, but something is not in your control. I see it, and I know very well what it is - donkey years! Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen years is when children become restless, they are disobedient, headstrong, they write their first poems, they rebel, and even a boy stares at a girl...
It is a well-known, beloved and familiar quote from one of the cult works of the unsurpassed Branko Ćopić. The words of the professor from the novel “The Years of the Donkey” will remain as a definition of precisely that most special period in the life of every person - the age when one slowly, and in fact in an instant, starts to step out of childhood into the world of adults. These are the years that bring the first changes, in the head, heart, body, behavior, smiles, the ones in which memories are created for a lifetime, and teenagers slowly become smarter than everyone else, enthusiastic, misunderstood, vulnerable, joyful, with many reasons for it or without a single one. These are the years that remain forever in the heart and that create and shape people, but also children who should be carried within oneself forever, protected, watered and returned to...
"The Years of the Donkey" is the new play by the Podgorica City Theatre, which will premiere on Friday, January 17th at 20 p.m., on the large stage of the Cultural and Information Center "Budo Tomović". The dramatization and dramaturgy were done by Vuk Draganic, and directed by a young director Andrija Rašović whose artistic, youthful, but also personal sensibility largely determined the staging. In an interview with "Vijesti", he announces the play, which he emphasizes shows "a world where ladders turn into dreams - we climb them not only to sneak up on our friends, but also to try to reach the moon. And then we realize: the moon is being grabbed with our bare hands"...
"Through Branko Ćopić's well-known work, small, everyday people speak, the locals of his native Hasan, his grandfather, his friends from boarding school in Bihać, but also the heroes of the People's Liberation Struggle. In our adaptation, this play is set in a dormitory, somewhere among the whispering sunflowers and the moonlight that writes verses, between first loves and tears," the statement reads.
The play breaks free from the war context from which the novel begins, focusing on the central event of the children's rebellion against the boarding school administration for expelling one of their friends, and the focus is on love, childhood, poetry...
The creative team is completed by a set designer Smiljka Šeparović and costume designer Mia Đurović, and in the year of the donkey, the acting ensemble will return, consisting of: Luka Stanković, Nevena Penava, Dejan Đonović, Zoran Dragićević, Marija Đurić, Željko Radunović i Bozidar Zuber.
The play "The Year of the Donkey" was financially supported by the Ministry of Culture and Media, and after the premiere on Friday, January 18th and 19th, repeat performances will be performed at the KIC "Budo Tomović" at 12 noon.
“The Years of the Donkey” will enrich the stage for children at the Podgorica City Theatre. What does the play bring us, what were the key stages in the process?
From the very beginning, I approached this play with the feeling that it should be a little different from what we are used to seeing in plays for children, and that is precisely the beautiful content that Branko Ćopić offered as some kind of reading content with which we matured. All generations participating in the play have in some way been marked by Branko Ćopić, although in different ways, and this is dominantly noticeable in this play. Thus, the play matured from within, it is different and atypical, and the focus is, it seems to me, on two topics that are relevant for the age group for which it is primarily intended, which are the teenage years, the question of love, falling in love and growing up through that love, as well as the question of growing up through rebellion in relation to injustice that comes from something systematic, that is, that comes from above, from the administration, from authority and others.
As with "The Donkey Years", as with all other works by Branko Ćopić, although they are somehow intended for younger audiences, we have extremely serious topics that carry various criticisms, both of society, ideology, circumstances, and behavior, all through authentic, healthy and beautiful humor, rebellion and optimism... How important is he as an author for children and literature, and what guided you in this adaptation of "The Donkey Years"?
We started from a sentence that Branko Ćopić uttered in an interview. He says that whenever he finishes a children's novel, he feels as if he has returned from some great celebration. In many ways, Branko Ćopić remained eternal and a boy, despite everything we know about his situation that he struggled with, primarily the criticism that befell him due to his conflict with the system, he always returned to that childhood as both hope and a basic human quality. That has written a lot of things into our play, primarily that we have the awareness that we need to see the world through the eyes of a child, precisely through those serious things such as rebellion, education, and even reading in the end... We have preserved that, and we have also tried to preserve his relationship to children's literature. Branko Ćopić is one of our rare writers who lived only from that, from his literature. His books have been translated and sold all over the world, and many children have learned, grown up and matured with his work, which, I am sure, they still appreciate today. I work with children in Cetinje in a drama studio, and when I got the chance to do this play, I asked them, in some pessimistic hope, if they knew who Branko Ćopić was. I was surprised how many children continue to mature with him. This is precisely why we were not allowed to give up, that certain emancipatory ambition that Branko Ćopić has, which in fact for him was a kind of escape from the harsh reality that surrounded him, from that criticism of society, i.e. from the pressures he received from the communist administration at the time and from which he escaped precisely through the creation of content for children, returning to his childhood and growing up, and enriching the next generations that are still they repay his deeds. 65, almost 70 years have passed since the writing of "The Donkey Years", and the plot of the novel takes place in Branko's adolescent years, that is, at the beginning of the 20th century. It is incredible how much all these themes and language that Branko Ćopić offers, which, even when spoken, performed, played..., still carries the strength and enthusiasm of childhood in the play that we so need in these times.
It seems to me that we are increasingly moving away from the pre-war, war or post-war period in literature, sometimes even away from those writers and their works, but Ćopić, despite everything, cannot be strictly classified within that framework, but rather educates, instructs, and empowers young people through his legacy. How demanding and challenging was this adaptation?
The fact is that young people, and even older people, are reading less and less. It is also a fact that this content, this media, that is, books that we are rooting for to survive, has a pronounced educational and educational role, influencing the psychological development of both children and other age groups. We must be aware of what was both my task and a challenge and an obstacle in the adaptation, which was how to translate the reading or the dryness of literature into stage language. And in that search, while working on the adaptation with Vuk, we made the decision that this is an independent work of art that draws on the motifs, thematic situations and events of Branko Ćopić. In relation to what reading is, what literature is, it seems to me that we, as authors who create for children, must be aware that our theatrical performances can certainly not replace literature, but definitely attract children to books or give them a new reading, or a new influence on the world of literature.
How do you personally observe the "donkey years" of today's generations, the circumstances in which they come and go?
I can talk about this from two perspectives, two inputs. One is my donkey years, my growing up at some point about ten years ago, and I can also talk about it through meeting the children I work with in the drama studio. From this perspective that I have now, it seems to me that these are years that just fly by. If I sit down and start remembering and thinking about everything that happened to me, of course I will remember everything and anything, because they remain deeply engraved in our souls, in our personalities and shape us as individuals. I think that this is precisely the foundation of a personality, a mature personality, a citizen, a future writer, lawyer, teacher, programmer, baker, for anyone, and actually for everyone, the foundation is precisely those "donkey years - 13, 14, 15"... These are those years in the gap between childhood and early youth that we experience, and it seems like they just fly by...
Since I said before that I observe this beauty and that I find it in today's circumstances, I tend not to be pessimistic. Although we often know that we are disappointed in today's children, in what they do, how they communicate, what they do, I believe that we must again be aware that the world we leave them does not offer many opportunities to be better. Although a basic child's intention and first impulse is that unconditional and sincere desire to be good, due to various situations and the society we live in, it is often distorted. This is precisely why the mission of such theater, art and educational projects, but also the mission of creativity for children and working with children in general, is not to put children back on the right path, but to offer them hope that they can change the world.
What is the relationship and influence of adults on children and young people?
We are aware that, due to circumstances, the history of our region did not leave much to the generations that came after, including the generation I belong to, who were directly involved in that terrible political narrative, whatever it was, and then not to the generations after mine. It seems to me that we have forgotten about our children, which is also reflected in the fact that we do not have much adaptation of these reading materials, we do not have much not only of quality, but also in quantity, we do not have much content for children, in general as a society, we do not have something to offer them in order to restore hope that the world can and should change. This, it seems to me, is both the mission and the idea of our message that we send through this play, which is that from childhood, from the perspective of childhood and with those childish, donkey-like years, we can and will build a new world and a better society.
That's a beautiful message. What do you think will particularly appeal to or impress the audience when it comes to this play, is it the theme itself, the work, the topicality, returning to one's own donkey years, support in overcoming some current situations and events, or perhaps the wit and humor that I believe you have retained?
As I said before, from the very beginning, love was important to me as a theme, even a little more than rebellion, no matter how much we all have a revolutionary attitude towards the world we live in, with a desire to change it. What this play implements in a subtle way is that lyrical line, the line of feeling for nature that is very dominant in Branko's works. Our artistic motifs are between a field of sunflowers and the moon, and just now (yesterday) we were rehearsing that one scene where those sunflowers somehow start to grow on the stage... The primary guideline for me and the team I work with was to give sensitivity to the characters who are stuck in some types who are violent or naughty or just do some petty mischief. We wanted them to change through that love, which is somewhere also the central line, because that motivation also comes from love, to give real children to love.
Yesterday we did a scene where the set designer who was watching the rehearsal said that the girls would go crazy, in a nice context, of course. I also want to say that we left that feminine line somewhere that speaks through their characters.
I must note that this is not highlighted much in the novel, so it will be interesting to witness this line in the play as well... Special motifs, close to everyone, regardless of age...
Yes, that's right, because I think it's a consciousness that's just maturing in the 21st century. What is feminine and what kind of feminine line is it? I believe that as a man I have no right to direct that or impose something of my own, but I can guarantee that Marija Đurić and Nevena Penava are presented that feminine line that will in some way provide those girls who may have been left aside with a quality that they will recognize, or rather, they will recognize some of their own quality and themselves on stage... I can say that I felt during rehearsals that this exists in this play and that it is very beautiful. In addition to love, the feminine line, and even rebellion, we also give space to what poetry is, and towards which I think we all have a tendency somewhere... Whether it is music or something else that is the communication of our feelings, but poetry and poetry itself are, in addition to the two mentioned lines, quite dominant in this play as a mechanism for fighting the world - they are fights with inner feelings and with the world that surrounds us.
I would say that we have expressed motifs that we have not had the opportunity to see in plays before, at least not in the stripped-down and simple key of interpretation that we were searching for throughout the play.
He works with actors he watched on stage as a boy.
Andrija Rašović completed his undergraduate studies in Film and TV Directing at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Cetinje, and is currently completing his master's studies in Theatre Directing. He also has a play called "The Pillowman", which he directed at the Royal Theatre Zetski Dom in Cetinje, based on a text by Martin McDonagh, and this is his first collaboration with the City Theatre Podgorica.
"I was ten years old when I saw 'Tom Sawyer' at the City Theatre, the first play of my life. Today I am working on 'The Years of the Donkey', my first professional project at the same theatre, with some of the actors I saw on stage at the time. Everything I experienced as an audience member as a boy and what I want to do as a director, is now naturally continuing through this collaboration with the City Theatre Podgorica," said Rašović.
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