This isn’t your typical Montenegrin story. Although we are using concrete places, we cannot entirely connect it to the Balkans. Using the actors’ personal experiences, as well as mine from Hungary and Europe, we tell a story about some kind of Eastern-Europeanism as a general feeling in life.

The play is the result of the participants’ working together. I gave the actors situations and characters, and they improvised with the given tasks. Then we wrote it down, edit it, cut it, and in the end delivered it back to the stage. I would encourage the actors not to focus on their instincts, but rather on situations themselves; and instead of clichés, to build situations from themselves and to experience personal inner stories.

The actors in the play use their real names, although it is obvious that they’re unidentifiable with any of the characters. The eight of them play 25 different characters, ranging from workers to ministers. They are all complex characters, filled with hopes and fears. They daydream and contemplate, but are unable to see the reality. They can’t provide for themselves, so they’re always expecting things from others (help or solutions), but in the end they still find themselves alone with their suffering. They can both laugh and cry extremely loudly, but doing so does them no good: they are unable to make the right decisions. Speech becomes a means of self-justification. They drift further and further away from reality – and that’s what makes them so real; as in a Chekhov play. Certain motifs resemble The Cherry Orchard or Ferenc Molnár’s Liliom (Lily).

While working together, we spent all of our time focusing on human vulnerability, hoping that self-reflection could make us stronger. What I personally consider most important is to open discussions about the topics initiated on stage, after the performance. (Schilling Árpád)

CAST

Performed by Varja Đukić, Dejan Đonović, Aleksandar Gavranić, Srđan Grahovac, Dušan Kovačević, Jelena Simić, Zoran Vujović, Nada Vukčević

Directed by Árpád Schilling
Dramaturgy: Bence Bíró
Translator, co-dramaturge: Kata Gyarmati
Music: Nina Perović
Assistant to the director: Mirko Radonjić

Director of Zetski Dom: Slobodan Božović
Artistic director: Lidija Dedović
Production supervisor: Đorđe Dragićević
Executive producer: Nataša Bozović
Technical supervisor: Đani Milačić
Stage supervisor: Aleksandar Anđelić
Light technician: Dragan Sjekloća
Stage technician: Goran Radović
Dresser: Stana Vuković
Catering: Lidija Kasom
Photo: Duško Miljanić
Print designer: Ozana Brković

Thanks to: Mrs Olivera Vukadinović, Mr Radoje Cerović, Mr Ljubomir Đurković, Mr Aleksandar Čilikov and Mr Pavle Ćupić (NGO MANS)

Read and download the PLAY in Hungarian and in Montenegrin.
No unauthorized use in full, or part, is permitted without the expressed written permission of the Authors. For further enquiries, please contact me in the 'Contact' section.

Photo: Duško Miljanic

PRESS
 

• Iva Čukić Šoškić: Za pozorište posvećeno glumcu. Pripetija.me, 03. 11. 2016.
   
• Tamás Jászay: Bonyolult egyszerű történetek. Revizor online, 22. 11. 2016.
   
• Tímea Papp: Mégis kinek az élete? Színház, January 2017.
   
• Gábor Bóta: Schilling Árpád cudarnak látja a helyzetünket. Független Hírügynökség, 08. 11. 2017.
   
• Márcia Bechara: Árpád Schilling encena desencanto e ruptura em “perfomance dos Bálcãs”. RFI Brazil, 10. 11. 2017.