In the drama Princess Xenia of Montenegro Radmile Vojvodic from 1994 and 2025, the hands have coincided. Noon and midnight. Wound and word. Bile and honey. Wave and flame. Cramp and tranquility. Howl and view. Ice and fire. Flint and silence. Love and death. Katun and Mediterranean. Fateful and chivalrous.
Open veins biography of family members Petrovic They speak of their terrible loneliness. In the five years of exile (1916-1921), their hopes and expectations were exhausted and they were overcome by poverty. Without a penny in their pocket and with a mortgage on their grave site Princess Xenia in the Krinova villa. Next to the grave Princess Vera.
In the Petrović home, everyone feels the swing of the guillotine. The guillotine as the fate of exile. In the Petrović home, one sometimes lives as if in a corpse. Loneliness in the Petrović home is a terrible presence of absence. It is the sound of a lost flute in a dark forest.
The sound of the guillotine did not frighten even King Nikola, neither Queen Milena, nor Princess Xenia, nor Crown Prince Danilo, nor Princess Vjera. Nor dead grandchildren, nor ancestors. As these verses and melancholy go with the maestro's music Žarko MirkovićAnd the sounds of Drenpolje from Balkan Empresses.
Dignity conquers all. Princess Ksenija is determined to endure whatever fate has in store for her: "Nothing is too hard for me, Dad..." If she strikes a match, everything will burn. Princess Ksenija is precise in every thought. Margaret Atwood In one poem he says: To see clearly, without wavering/Without turning your head to the side/It hurts when the blindfold is removed/Two spans from the sun/What do you see then?/A blade across the eyeball.
Princess Ksenija would take off her blindfold and, within an inch of the sun, tell him... As she said Nikola Pašić i to King Alexander, her sister's son Zorke: “Twenty thousand Montenegrins have taken up arms. They are demanding the annulment of unconstitutional parliamentary decisions in Podgorica and free elections. Nikšić, Podgorica, Danilovgrad, Kolašin are no longer under Serbian rule, and Cetinje is under siege. As for me, it is clear as day... only armed resistance by Montenegrins can spoil Serbia's plans to eventually gain recognition of the annexation of Montenegro. There you have it, the gauntlet has been thrown down...”
A performance Princess Xenia of Montenegro in 1994 was an important incentive to achieve what would happen at the beginning of the 21st century during the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia. That Montenegro would once again be an independent state. For the last four years, the miserable and false government in Belgrade, which is collapsing, and its right-wing sycophants here, have once again shown their ambition to make Montenegro a Serbian district. That is why new Princess Xenia (with prologue and epilogue) at the Montenegrin National Theatre and the Royal Theatre Zeta Dam House - a remake that says That Montenegro is eternal. I am writing this from the heart of a Spanish fighter and a fighter of the Fifth Montenegrin Proletarian Brigade. Don't forget anything, my dear, that there are always young men and women in Montenegro. eyes of iron like Batrić Perović. And a smile Ljuba Čupića. This play enters the rhythm of student protests in Podgorica. I saw Princess Ksenija on Saturday evening, January 25th, among the first rows of students. Because fate never gives peace. Because only silence speaks intelligibly. And readiness to fight.
The aging Ksenia is plagued by insomnia. Insomnia and poverty. Princess Ksenia is still on the wings in her eighties.
Varja Djukic she played, more than thirty years ago Marina Tsvetaeva Code Borke Pavićević u Center for cultural decontamination. Decontamination from the primitive SNS government in Belgrade and Podgorica is needed more than ever. They are spreading their wings and want to cover the first printed book in the Obod Crnojević printing house with chauvinistic, shameful paint. The greasy fingers of the Serbian Orthodox Church are still on that forgery Porphyria i Joanikia.
I'm returning to the joy of the game. Princess Xenia. And why? Because we all have to stick to what Princess Xenia herself says, in her polemic with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Government in Exile, Dr. I'm drunk.: “...I do not allow myself what I despise in others. And there is nothing I ignore more than not having my own opinion.” Here is how Princess Ksenija sums up the sad tea party from the family quarantine: “A winter like this one from the eighteenth to the nineteenth is not remembered in France. Maybe the snow... would not have fallen in these parts if we had not come to them.”
This melancholic-climatic crescendo has elements of wit. Or so it seems to me in this crazy head. With what nirvana in her voice and eyes did young Ksenija utter it, Ana Vučković. Only someone who combines sadness and longing can do that. It can't be described in words. Maybe with some etude Sergei RachmaninoffIf he did write etudes.
In the princess's chest is a pomegranate as a gift. Ana Vučković's father gave his daughter the first name Ksenija and guessed that she would play Princess Ksenija in Zetski dom. At the premiere Xenia In the winter of 1994, Radmila Vojvodić wore an embroidered Montenegrin shirt given to her by her mother, Ana Vučković. Her daughter is a rare gift on the Yugoslav theater scene. Princess Ksenija knew that one must rise from the ruins to fight for freedom. She never gives up. The poetry of the homeland never dies. Princess Ksenija is a flame and a stature.
Varja Đukić played the young Ksenija in 1994 in Cetinje, and today she plays Her Majesty Ksenija in the eighties. This has rarely happened in the history of theatre. Varja Đukić played both that time and the three decades between the two performances. That time is told in a documentary and personal way in the prologue of the play: Because it's strange how that time never passes... intimate history is the only reliable history... let's never move away from those unfortunate nineties or from that 1918. Balkan anxiety that you can cut with a knife... One could even say that that play meant more than theater... It's no longer true what someone really does or has done, but what others say they do or have done... so from that supermarket of the past, things are constantly being sold and bought as needed... All the pissing on the nettles in both the state and the theater... The prologue shed new light on the new play. Shadow and light. And only the epilogue...
Scenography Marija Kalabic is between Dragisa Brasov i George de Chirico... Monumental passages, light, snow, open umbrellas in the background, all contribute to the fantastic nuance of the play. The scenes soar with the sounds of Žarko Mirković's magical music. The set design and costumes rhyme Boris Čakširan who was the costume designer in the first version of Ksenia. The color of the costumes creates harmony with the set design in which the artist's artistic style prevails. Giuseppe de Ribera.
Varja Đukić played both the past and the present and to what happened in Cetinje. How much nostalgia and love for the homeland is in her play. What treasures she has stored in her almost empty closet. There are her photographs. She wandered in her youth... “Cetinje, Ivanova korita, Rijeka, Skadar Lake, Bar and Ulcinj... all the necessities and pressures of this unfortunate princess are there. Montenegro, Cetinje, where was that under the sky? Under which star? Here they are. With me.”
Princess Xenia is melodrama. It's a controlled tear at the edge of an eyelash. There's also humor in it. As King Nikola says to his son Danilo: "What a sheep sees while lying down is not far away."
Varja Đukić is one of the best Yugoslav actresses. From Rahela Ferrari, Milena Dravić, Milena Zupančić do Mire Karanovic, Mirjane Jokovic. In conversation with Mr. Vukmanović, the splendor of her gift is on display. The charm of old age, moments of neurosis due to poverty and the vain hope that she could return to Montenegro. To anger due to the unwillingness of the new government to grant her an appanage. And in hood side Varja Đukić was Princess Ksenija in all her glory and dignity.
She was played by an excellent English actor from the Montenegrin theater. Dejan Ivanic. How he played that nuance between duty and the transition into noble feelings for the aging princess... He was her equal in stage charm. And that charm came from simplicity and wit.
The mirror is a sign of fantasy. They are almost always on stage. two Princess Xenia. Pupil to pupil in the mirror. Sometimes even in a broken mirror. As is Princess Xenia the mirror and the mirror of Montenegro. The rehearsals evoked linguistic nostalgia in me and reminded me of the richness of our language in drama Princess Xenia: “Shoot, untie, untie, taste, godly, neck, frost, leprosy, stretch, go out, freeze, endure, encourage, lose...”
Rehearsal is the essence of theater. Rehearsal is a mirror of partnership and friendship. It is a mirror of the conspiracy of the acting ensemble.
In exile, thirst is gnawing at a rusty faucet. Despite this, young Ksenija does not give up her attitude and pride. Although she knows better than anyone that everything is in vain: “All that remains for us is to find ourselves outside the law and on the streets...” Only the aristocrat fights for a lost cause. Ksenija is constantly in the film forgotten ancestors. And he is always in the stance of a swordsman, which is why he says to his brother, the heir to the throne: “Danilo, learn once, whoever perseveres, that is also a champion.” Princess Ksenija, Ana Vučković, knows well that freedom is the color of blood. And that every other color is false. Blood is the color of the Thirteenth of July. Before which the uncleanness and this malice of those who live in Montenegro and want Montenegro to be a Serbian region will disappear. That filth has already weakened, and will soon go into mouse holes. Young Ksenija, who wrote with King Nikola Proclamation: "In order to justify herself before the world, like Pilate, for this crime of God and unprecedented in history and to blame it on the Montenegrin people, she falsified the will of the people because the Great National Assembly does not exist as an institution under our Constitution, let alone if it is competent to decide the fate of Montenegro. The desire of every Montenegrin is to enter into Yugoslav unity, on an equal footing with Serbia, and in no way otherwise."
The shadow of King Nikola's death is present from the very first scenes. The ruler is absolutely aware of his position in exile. But in flashes of lucidity he shows the former determination of the victor from Vučji do. The moonlight lingers in King Nikola's head like a wandering stain. Like a hieroglyph for a scream: "If only I could see the top of Lovćen, at least from someone's boat on the open sea to cheer him on, so that he could immediately, at that moment, end up in the middle of the raging Adria."
How much nostalgia and vain shine there is in the eyes Izudin Bajrović. How much discipline to not turn into pathos and to keep it pure emotion. And what an unerring sense of rhythm.
There is a precise gradation in the hints of the king's departure. The sound of a musical instrument imperceptibly leads to fantasy: "Do you hear the sound of the organ?" In the hearing of King Nikola, the Toccata and Fugue for the organ Johann Sebastian Bach. Toccata or Fugue of Death: "When I leave the lyceum tomorrow, I'll go straight to the square by the Carriage Station. I'll take the best cab. After I've let the carriage go, the organist and I will spread out nicely on the grass... to lean back, then put my hand on the organ handle to play for me... How can I look high up into the clouds without thinking in which direction Montenegro is... How can I not be moved by that..." At every rehearsal, baritone Izudin Bajrović took me for a glass of anisette with the young prince.
Somehow, the Sarajevo actor quietly embarked on his acting journey and joined the ranks of the best Yugoslav actors. On my ATP list, where Slobodan Perovic, Fabijan Šovagović, Slobodan Aligrudic, Predrag Lakovic, Meto Jovanovski, Ivica Vidović...
Dignity also dominates the overture to the death of King Nikola. From the sound of the organ, it moves to Nikola's decision to remain alone with Queen Milena. This is their last conversation. One of the best-written of love scene in the history of modern Yugoslav literature. That shame and pride, modesty and luxury, moment and eternity played are in polar solitude Gorana Marković and Izudin Bajrović. ''And do you have something against me, Milena? - No, against you, my eyes! - This gloomy exile, and miserable old age, and approaching death, all of that is bending me... Were you and I ever happy, Milena? - Don't talk like that. Where is your soul, Niko! - If we were in that room with the children now, in the one where we always ate together, now I would have taken courage and told you... Milena... - Tell me, Niko, dear. There is something against you. What is it, my sinful soul? What is it, Niko? Angels are with you, Milena. We have spent a lot of time over our heads during our long life... I never told you... I loved you so much - Don't talk like that! Don't be ashamed of me - I bow to you, here, today. Cry, Milena, cry well, so that you will mourn me less when I die, because you, you say, were happy with me. - I don't want any more tears... - Give me your hand, Milena, let me kiss your hand.'' This kiss on the hand is a bow from King Nikola to all those banices and heroines of Montenegro without whom this country would not be what it was and what it will be... From this love scene, King Nikola sails away to his death.
And so goes the lament of Ilija Bjeloš: The wail from Njeguš does not subside/the bells from Ćipur do not ring,/the cannons do not fire from the battle./For your sake, for your deaf chamber/Montenegro mourns, lord. Where is our beautiful happiness, all for your old glory/, long live, lord! Long live, lord... long live, lord... long live, lord!
The wail of Ilija Bjeloš can still be heard in every corner of Montenegro. In the first version Xenia Ilija Bjeloš was played by Milo Miranović from Gornje Kokotah, one of the best episodic actors in the history of the Yugoslav Drama Theatre. He was whining about King Nikola and it seemed to me that it was unattainable. He stood by his shoulder novi Performed by Ilija Bjeloš Sloba Marunović. It is a chamber wail that imperceptibly turns into the wail of aristocratic Montenegro. It is the wail of deep loyalty both in battle and in death. Loyalty as dignity. Marunović does this from the background, and present it is throughout the entire show.
And more about Queen Milena... Gorana Marković played everything masterfully, concisely and elegantly. And the care for Nikola, and the care for Danilo, and the care for Vjera. And the awareness of what was happening in the turbulent history of Montenegro: "The word is, Montenegro sacrificed itself to the work of Serbia. And by God, Ksenija, any baptized policy, without this Serbian presence, would have been born from these victims, hungry and naked thousands and thousands of Montenegrin sons..."
Crown Prince Danilo has the difficult task of fighting against despair and anxiety in his family. He recognized early, even in his youth, the fate of the ruling family. But Danilo lived through that fate, that futility, honorably and nobly. He knows that he is a stranger in his own body and in his homeland. Already at the beginning of the drama, Danilo has decided to give up the throne. After his father's death, he said to God and Queen Milena: "Lord God... who put me at the head of this people, forgive me for opposing you, for renouncing my duty and honor... I cannot... in vain, mother! It is over." That in vain he played excellently Aleksandar Radulović: I am surrounded by silence as if in a greenhouse where my pain needs to mature. Or: My entire being presses down on everything that has united against me outside. Danilo is capable, lucid, brave, but he doesn't feel like it. There is no better definition of melancholy: They say time passes and life passes. And it can also be like this: because we are just a shell, just a leaf/and everything revolves around the fruit/in us, around an enormous death.
Radulović is a master of detail in silent scenes. How he looks at his father while half asleep listening to the sound of the organ. His eye lights up with pain. How he drops his cigarette case in the winter garden when he learns that the Italian president Montaljari advises that the government in exile from France move, for example, to Switzerland. I remembered that gleam of ember in Aleksandar Radulović's eyes during rehearsals. In that ember you can clearly see the fall of the Petrović family. Aleksandar, you hit the crucial three-pointer in the game against Monaco, on the pass of the young LakićAleksandar, in ten years you will play Falstaff at the Montenegrin National Theatre.
Princess Vera's first replica: melancholy as in a cemetery, best describes the atmosphere in the Petrović home. How she said that first line Jelena Laban. With how much subtlety. Princess Vjera knows that fate is a capricious, persistent and deaf executioner. She knows that life, and especially life in exile, distraction. Princess Faith or the Romance of Blood is a fever of hearing. And it was precisely this fever of hearing that Jelena Laban masterfully played at a family tea party: “If I didn't have that little job with the Red Cross, I would end up in a straitjacket next to you.” From that performs Princess Vjera broke a teacup, with what desperate elegance Jelena Laban did it. Princess Vjera's slight fainting is best heard in the sound of a couplet Aleksandra Bloka: And you, soul, deaf soul, I'm drunk, drunk, drunk. It's untranslatable. But the young actress managed it. The appearance of Princess Vera with an open umbrella when she talks about her father's ravings in the Luxembourg Gardens brought a wave of fantasy to the stage. That: Jabe, Jabe, will resonate in the ears of the viewer for a long time. Jabe, Jabe, is the nickname of the dead daughter of Vjera's sister Zorka. She will be played by Jelena Laban Sophocles Antigonus.
Doctor Šoć, Minister of Foreign Affairs, withstood all the attacks and neuroses of Princess Ksenija and King Nikola. He knew that it was impossible to diplomatically defend Montenegro because the big European countries had made a mess of it. A hardened actor with calm pupils and gestures Dusan Kovačević It contributes equally to the impact of the scenes with Ana Vučković and Izudin Bajrović, and when they attack him together.
In a well-written epilogue, Mr. Vukmanović comes to bring good news to Princess Xenia. The appanage will start arriving regularly. The chamber is empty. He appears Ljubinka Rosi-Petrović dragging a suitcase: "Sita, fed up with your false deadlines, died, sir. By the grace of God, and it was not difficult for her to die. Such was her life... She never allowed pity. And now enough, sir... And you could have been killed. I could have shot you with this Ksenija's lady's revolver." Mr. Vukmanović was taken aback. Princess Ksenija became close to him. An emigrant by birth, she finished the conversation staring at the open suitcase as if at an open grave. "You have lost your self-respect, you have lost it hopelessly, Montenegrin people. This is my stingy greeting to the homeland, and to you, sir."
Restore your self-respect, Montenegrin people.
Mrs. Rossi is played excellently. Nada Vukcevic. He plays with a mouth full of bitter rice but with so much acting charm in his body, voice, and eyes that the viewer will not forget it. It is good that Nada Vukčević and Dejan Ivanić play this image in the dialogue. It is a lesson to young actors that even in five lines one can show great mastery. Nada Vukčević or a commentary on the death of Princess Ksenija. Death and her whims again.
Lazar Đurđević in the role of Major Kloz. His uniform fits him perfectly. His stature is like that of a duke Gavr Vuković. There will be a young actor and Timon of Athens. And I see him as serdar Vukot: And whoever betrays that and starts, every thing turns to stone for him! We Montenegrins must keep that in mind for the rest of our lives. Without compromise, to the absolute. Duty and passion and lordship. That is the motto of the group of conspirators who put on this play. This play is a support for students.
Death to fascism, freedom to the people!
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